
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 





i 



Complifnents of 




MAYOR, 

Newport, 11. I. 



a 



I 



HISTORICAL 



ADDRESS, 



itlJ 0|1 SttV!0ft 



DELIVERED 



JULY 4th, 1876. 



W^x{\ m yppntttr. 



BY 



. 1876. ^i 



WILLIAjM. (p. SHEFFIEL(b. 



FUBLISHED BY OBDEK OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 



NEWPORT: 
JOHN r. SANBORN & CO., STEAM JOB PRINTERS. 

1876. 



A/fS^ 



^rMtbttl $ yr0cfemHHi:m. 



(By the ^l^ resident of the United States. 
A. PROCLAMATION. 



Whereas, A joint resolution of the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the United States was duly approved 
on the 13th day of March last, which resolution is as fol- 
lows : 

"Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 
bled, that it be and is hereby recommended b}^ the Senate 
and the House of Representatives to the people of the sev- 
eral States that they asseml)le in their several counties or 
towns on the approaching centennial anniversary of our na- 
tional independence, and that they cause to have delivered 
on such day an historical sketch of said county or town from 
its formation, and that a copy of said sketch may be filed, in 
print or manuscript, in the clerk's office of said county, and 
an additional copy in print or manuscript be filed in the 
office of the librarian of Congress, to the intent that a com- 
plete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our in- 
stitutions during the first centennial of their existence" ; 
and 

Whereas, It is deemed proper that such recommendation 
be brought to the notice and knowledge of the people of the 
United States, 

Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the 
United States, do hereby declare and make known the same, 
in the hope that the object of such resolution may meet the 
approval of the people of the United States, and that proper 
steps may be taken to carry the same into effect. 
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 25th 
day of May, in the year of our Lord 1876, and of the in- 
dependence of the United States the one hundredth. 
By the President, U. S. GRANT. 

Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State. 



Ilal^ ts\ Wnh IsfrntK 



EXECUTIVE (DFJPA^TMEJ^'T, 

(Providence^ April 2yth^ iSyd. 

To the Honorable City Council of the City of Newport, 
Gentlemen : 

I have the honor herewith to enclose a duly certified 
copy of a Resolution passed by the General Assembly at its 
recent Session, requesting me to invite the people of the sev- 
eral towns and cities of the State, to assemble in their several 
localities on the approaching Centennial Anniversary of our 
National Independence, and cause to have delivered on 
such day an historical sketch of said town or city from its 
formation. 

By pursuing the course suggested by the General 
Assembly, the people of the State will derive an amount of 
information which will be invaluable to the present genera- 
tion, as showing the wonderful progress of the several t(»\\iis 
and cities since their formation. 

It will also be of great value to future generations 
wluiu the materials for such sketches now accessible will 
have been lost or destroyed b}^ accident, or become more or 
less effaced and illegible from time. 

Therefore in pursuance of the request of the General 
Assembly I respectfully and earnestly, through you, invite 
the people of your city to carry out the contemplated (cele- 
bration on the 4th day of July next. 

HENRY LIPPITT, aovernor. 



Mt n\ ^%i^h %%\mh. &^u 



In General Assembly, January Session, A. D. 1876. 



JOINT RESOLUTION 



CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENNIAL 



IM THE SEVERAL CITIES AJIO TOWJIS. 

Resolved., The House of Representatives concuning there- 
in, that in accordance with the recommendation of the 
National Congress, the Governor be requested to invite the 
people of the several cities and towns of the State, to assem- 
ble in their several localities on the approaching Centennial 
Anniversary of our National Independence, and cause to 
have delivered on that day an historical sketch of said town 
or city from its formation, and to have one copy of said 
sketch, in print or in manuscript, filed in the clerk's office of 
said town or city, one copy in the office of the Secretary of 
State, and one copy in the office of the librarian of Congress, 
to the intent that a complete record may thus be obtained of 
the progress of our institutions during the First Centennial of 
their existence; and that the Governor be recjuested to com- 
municate the invitation forthwith to tlie several town and 
city councils in the State. 

I certify the foregoing to be a true copy of a resolution 
passed by the General Assembly of the State aforesaid, 
on the 20th day of April, A. D. 1876. 

( ) Witness my hand and Seal of the State, 

i^i this 27th day of April, A. D. 1876. 

JOSH II A M. ADDEMAN, 

Secretary of State. 



iil^ n\ famprrri 



OFFICE OF THE CITY CLE^FK. 

At a meeting of the special committee appointed on the 
communication of His Excellency, Governor Lippitt, Alder- 
man J. B. Brown was authorized to procure some suitable 
person to deliver a historical discourse on the 4th of July, 
1876. He subsequently reported that the Hon. William P. 
Sheffield had consented to deliver the said discourse. 



At a meeting of the Council licld -lune 7, l.s7t>, the fol- 
lowing resolution was passed : 

IteHolved, That the sum of '|!2,500 be, and the same is here- 
by appropriated for the celebration of the Fourth of July, 
1876, and that Aldermen J. C. Stoddard, George Denniston, 
Jr., and Council men Weaver, Bull and Cottrell be and are 
hereby appointed a committee to nuike all the necessar}' ar- 
rangements for the same. 



ONE HUNDREDTH 

ANNIVERSARY 



jmir 4f lifs. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES 



^^itm ll^iiHf, ^eiit}|0rf, 



COMMENCINS AT 11 O'CLOCK A. M. 



I. MUSIC, - ... By the Band. 

II. PRAYER, - By Rev. A. G. Mercer, D. D. 

III. MUSIC, - - - . BY THE BAND. 

IV. READING OF DECLARATION OF 

INDEPENDENCE, By HON. HENRY Bedlow, Mayor. 

V. MUSIC, .... BY THK BAND. 

VI. ORATION, - BY Hon. Wm. P. SHEFFIELD. 

VII. MUSIC, .... BY THE BAND. 

BENEDICTION. 



RESOLUTION OF THANKS 

^ TO THE 

HON. WILLIAM P, SHEFFIELD 

FO^k HIS HISTORICAL T)ISCOURSE ; 

Together with a Resolution oidering the same Priuted. 



At a meeting of the City Ci)uiieil held July 6, 1876, the 
following' resolutions were passed : 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be and the 
same are hereby extended to Hon. William P. Sheffield for 
the Historical Discourse delivered July 4tli, instant ; and 

Besolved, That Mr. Sheffield be recjiu'sted to furnish a 
copy of the same for publication ; and l)e it further 

Resolved, That Alderman Brown and Councilmen Bull 
and Cranston, be authorized to cause two thousand copies 
of said discourse to be printed in pamphlet form, and liave 
one copy of the sketch filed in the City Clerk's ofhce in this 
city; one copy in the office of the Secretary of State in 
Providence ; one copy in the office of the Librarian of Con- 
gress in Washington, D. C, and the other copies for the use 
of the City Council. 



PRAYER, 

BY THE REV. A. G. MERCER. 



O Thou Eternal God to whom a thousand years are but 
as one day, we, the creatures of a moment, at the end of the 
hundred years of our nation's life, in humility and adoration 
bow down before Thee. 

Permit us to speak with Thee this day as a man speaks 
with his friend. 

Thou hast created us a nation here far in the west of the 
world, that we might lead in the great experiment of forming 
a new hemisphere. Thou hast created us of the best blood 
of the world, and given us the best traditions, the Bible and 
all the acquisitions of liberty and of social wisdom. Our 
fathers began the career Thou didst open, consecrating it 
with their sacrifices. We became free States — and guided as 
we think by Th}^ spirit, made and established an American 
constitution of liberty and public order, giving to the earth 
the promise of better eras. Thou gavest us this grand allot- 
ment of earth and sky as our home — this soil, this climate, 
these rivers and mountains and wide skirted plains, and said, 
"subdue and possess." And now at the end of a hundred 
years, by energy, by art, we have subdued and possess, and 
hold the continent from sea to sea. 

And here to-day we present before Thee this continent 
and all its riches ; this vast population with all its power and 
virtues ; this new democratic world dedicated to man ; we 
present it all before Thee — thy gift, with thanksgiving and 
praise and the voice of melody ! So far as we have done 
well — and in many things have we not done well, O Lord ? 
so far, accept it graciously, and may the whole people humbly 
glad hear thy voice, to-day, saying "Well done good and 
faithful servant." 
2 



10 PRAYER. 

But, O Lord God, we have sinned — not so much this people 
as those of us who are the natural leaders of the people — and 
to-day, after a hundred years, after all our gains of power and 
riches, we must take to ourselves shame and say, that among 
all our gains we have not gained — surely not as we ought — 
in character and in public heart ; we have grasped for self, 
and neglected the common weal, and even our good men are 
not always good citizens. We deplore our unenlightened 
and prejudiced suffrage ; we deplore the folly of the citizen 
and the incompetence of the ruler ; Ave deplore our conceit 
and irreverance, that we do not know what to look up to ; 
that our best men are not our highest men. We deplore the 
sinking standard of common honesty and of public; and })ri- 
vate honor. 

But O, where we have done ill — and have we not done 
very ill ? surely we are, still thy people, and wilt Thou not 
pardon us and correct us in thy mercy, and fill our lives with 
patriotic energy, that henceforth we may be faithful work- 
men of the State? 

Take away, O Lord, if Thou wilt, all this Centennial 
glory — take it all from us, but give us in its place, abundance 
of puljlic honor, the "Righteousness that exalteth a Nation," 
and so, out of darkness, make this people into a pillar of lire, 
leading forward toward the land of Promise and Hope . 

(), divine Father! in profound liumiltv, in unbounded 
gratitude we offer this our service of Solemn Thanksgiving 
and Prayer in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen. 



tltl 



^ 4> 



Address. 



The Puritans and the Cavaliers, the Independents and 
the Episcopalians, agreed that God was to be worshiped ; 
they differed only as to the form of worship, and this differ- 
ence was the primary cause of the settling of the New 
England colonies by British subjects. True the spirit of 
adventure, and the advantages of trade, contributed to this 
end, but the controlling influence operating upon most of the 
Puritan emigrants, was the desire to worship God in accord- 
ance with their convictions of duty. 

The Puritans were agreed in opposing the Established 
Church, but they had not stopped to consider if they were 
agreed upon the grounds of their opposition.*' Some were 
opposed to the corruptions of the Church, and were in favor 
of purifying it, and despaired of accomplishing their purpose 
but by a revolution in existing systems and establishing 
others, which should be more exacting in their demands, 
requiring a more fervent piety, and a greater self-denial ; 
while others objected that the hierarchical form of govern- 
ment practiced in the Established Church, was not calculated 
either to advance Christianity, or to open the largest field for 
usefulness to the members of the church. 

When the separation from "the mother cliurch" was 
complete, and when the Puritans were establishing a church 
in America, upon wliich they were to rear a commonwealth, 



14 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

while their minds were highly excited upon religious topics, 
it is not surprising that differences of opinion upon church 
polity should arise among them, nor is the occasion for 
surprise diminished when we reflect that the only road open, 
which was apparent to them, for the gratification of ambition, 
was through the church. ■ 

What was thus natural, and to be expected, arose in the 
Puritan colon}^ of Massachusetts Bay ; for they came to Amer- 
ica to found a church, and a commonwealth based upon the 
church. This done, the majority of them claimed the church 
and the commonwealth M'hieh they had founded in their 
exile, to be theirs, — theirs to control, — tlieirs to enjoy. A 
few of their number with no higher purpose, but witli l)road- 
er conceptions of luunan rights, a. firmer trust in the cajiacity 
of the masses of men, and a higher ideal of duty to God, 
ventured tile opinion that the ediurch was the cliurcli, not of 
the Puritans, l)ut of Jesus Christ, its founder and head, and 
that tbe commonwealth was the King's connnonwcalth,. 
imder whose license it existed; and that the Puritans had 
no right to exclude the humble followers ot the Saviour of 
niankiud from ills church, or the King's loyal subjects from 
a. place ill his counuouwealth. 'I'he majority prevailed, and 
com})elled the unyielding minority to It'ave tlieii' homes in 
lioston and depart from the Christian coninionwealth. 

Jolin Wheelwright who had been a classmate of Crom- 
well at Cambridge, vicar of Bilsby, silenced by Arhbishop 
Laud for non-conrormity, and had emigrated to America, 
was ])astor of a church in IJraintree. lie Avas a kinsman of 
Ann Hutchinson' and had some sympathy with her religious 
oj)inions, in consequence of which a controversy arose be- 
tween him and Mr. Wilson, the pastor of the Boston church. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 15 

This matter was brought before the General Court, and 
Wheelwright was censured. 

Against this judgment of censure, William Hutchinson, 
William Aspinwall,^ William Dyer,"* John Sanford,^ Samuel 
Wilbor,*^ Thomas Savage,' Edward Hutchinson,'"^ Richard 
Carder,* John Porter,'-^ William Baulston,^^ William Free- 
born,ii Henry Bull,i-' John Walker,!^ Mr. Clarke,!^ and John 
Coggeshall,i5 Qf Boston, Philip Sherman,^^' of Roxluny, and 
others protested; and from it William Coddiiigton^^ and 
Randall Holden^* dissented ; the former liaving opposed its 
rendition in the General Court. For this act, on the 2d of 
Novemlier, 1(337, the sixteen persons first named were dis- 
armed. 

On the 12tli of the next March, the General Court noti- 
fied William Coddington, John Coggeshall, William Bauls- 
ton, Edward Hutchinson, Samuel Will)or, John Porter, 
Henry Bull, Philip Sherman, William Freeborn, and Richard 
Carder, that the}' had license to leave the colony, and that 
if they did not depart l)efore the next Court, in May, 1638, 
they were commanded to then appear at court, to answer 
such objections as should l)c ol)jected against them. Nich- 
olas Easton,^^ of Salem, was warned to depart at the same 
time, but in a separate order. 

William Brenton'" had incurred the colonial displeasure 
for being contaminated with the opinions of Wheelwright 
and Hutchinson, and having opposed their being censured 
in the General Court . 

The persons whom I have named, were the founders of 
the colony of Rhode Island, and whatever may be said about 
the intervention of other causes to induce the banishment 
of Roger Williams, and the settlement of Providence, I have 



16 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

never seen it stated or heard it intimated, that the founders 
of the coh^ny of Rhode Island were disarmed, had leave to 
depart and were threatened with further orders, if they did 
not leave, for any other cause than for the religious opinions 
which they entertained, and their protest against the cen- 
sure of Wheelwright for his religious opinions. 

The men who founded Rhode Island, were among those 
who had l^een most conspicuous in the Puritan common- 
wealth, "men," says Callender, " who were in repute with 
the very l)est for their holiness and zeal." Among them 
were men of culture, and all of them had there enjoyed 
social position and most of them official distinction. Yet the 
hard fate of tlie times befel them, and they became the exiled 
of exiles, Puritans of Puritans and in their new-found home 
they were permitted to assist in laying tlie foundations of a 
new society, l)ased alike u])on civil and religious liberty. 

These colonists passed beyond the jurisdiction of Massa- 
chusetts and of Plymouth, and landed at Portsmouth. Here 
the}' incorporated themselves into a civil society, not accord- 
ing to the forms and constitutions of the countries from 
which they came, but in accordance with the lofty aspira- 
tions of their own pure hearts, and the circumstances which 
surrounded them . 

Through the kindly offices of that great man, Roger 
Williams, they had obtained the Indian title to this Island 
from the Narragansetts. who had recently conquered it from 
the Wampanoags; but they liad no charters or laws for their 
govennnent but those which are written on the heart and 
rest in the consciences of men : but on the 7th day of 
March, 1688, they solemnly, in the ])resence of Jehovah, in- 
corporated themselves into a body politic, as he should help, 
and promised that they would sabmit their persons, lives and 



HISTORY or NEWPORT. 17 

estates unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords, and to all those perfect and most absoltite 
laws of His given us in his holy word of truth, to be guided 
and judged thereby. Thus it may be seen that this first 
charter of our civil rights rests upon the broad principles of 
the Golden Rule. 

The founders of Rhode Island were exiled from England 
by the dread of the Tower of London. The fires of Smith- 
field lighted their way to the abodes of savage men and the 
wilds of native forests ; the full force of persecution had not 
yet been exhausted, the unrelenting hand of destiny would 
not let loose its grasp; for there was a denser forest not yet 
penetrated ; more formidable tribes of savages, which had not 
yet been encountered. Another trial was necessary to be had 
to separate the gospel of jjerfect freedom in religion from 
the accumulated dross of ages. Into the crucible of this 
other trial f)ur fathers were cast, and from its retort they 
evolved the idea of spiritual liberty, to light the wanderer 
in the way of life out of the darkness and gloom of the relig- 
ious intolerance of all the past ; a light Avhich has since been 
.expanding, and yet continues to expand over the world like 
the rays of a new-born day. 

The colonists provided for the assignment of lands to the 
settlers, the erection of a meeting-house, and regulated oth- 
er affairs at Portsmouth ; and in the spring of 1638-9, the 
majority of the settlers removed to the southwesterly part of 
the Island and there laid the foundations of Newport.'^ 

Here they laid out their lands subject to certain public 
rights of fishery, passed an order that no one should be ac- 
counted a delinquent for doctrine, and did many acts in 
regulating their prudential affairs. They soon received con- 
siderable accession to their numbers of persons, who like 
3 



18 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

themselves, had been oppressed for conscience. They ap- 
pointed Mr. F^aston and Mr. Clarke to inform Sir Henry 
Vane of the condition of things here, and to request him to 
endeavor to obtain his Majesty's charter for the people of 
the Island. 

In 1640, the town employed Robert Lenthall to keep a 
public school, — the first public school in America, and possi- 
bly the first school accessible to all, supported by the public 
charge, in the world. 

As earl}'' as 1G41, there were at least two hundred fami- 
lies on the Island. That year it was unaminously ordered 
that ''the government or l)ody politic of the Ishuid 
and the jurisdiction thereof in favor of our prince, is a 
democratic or popular goverinnent ; that is, it is in the 
power of the body of the freemen orderly assemlthKU or the 
major part of them, to make and constitute just laws by 
which they will be regulated, and depute from among them- 
selves such ministers as shall sec tlu/m J'aithfully executed 
between man and man." 

In tlie beginning of IlilU, the colony at Newport received 
further accession to their nuiubci's iVoni J'ortsmouth, and 
ordered that the chief magistrate should l)e called governor, 
and the next, deputy-governor ; and tlie governor and two 
assistants should ])e chosen from one town, and the deputy 
and the tv.'o other assistants sliould bo chosen from the other 
town, and that the town at the uorth end of the Island 
should be called Portsmouth ; arul in May of that year, a 
court consisting of magistrates and juiors, should l)e lield in 
Newport and in Portsmouth. The magistrates wen' the 
governor, di'puty-governor and assistants. Tliis is the com- 
mencement of jury trials in Rhode Island. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 19 

In September, 1640, Governor Coddington was ordered 
to write to the governor of the Bay, that they would com- 
municate their councils concerning tlieir agitations with the 
Indians. 

In the recoi'ds of the Massachusetts General Court, under 
date October 7, 1640, is the following order, viz: "It is 
ordered that the letter lately sent to the governor l)y Mr. 
Eaton [of New Haven], Mr. Hopkins, Mr, Haynes [of Con- 
necticut], Mr. Coddington, and Mr. Brenton [of Newport], 
but concerning also the General Court, shall be thus answer- 
ed by the governor. That the Court doth assent to all the 
propositions laid down in the aforesaid letter, but that the 
answer shall be directed to Mr. Eaton, Mr. Hopkins and Mr. 
Haynes only, excluding Mr. Coddington and Mr. Brenton, 
as men not to be capitulated with at all by us either for 
themselves or the people of the Island, where they inhabit as 
their case standeth." 

Thus early the inhabitants of Rhode Island desired to 
enter into a league with the other New England colonies 
for mutual defence, and were prevented from doing so by 
the arbitrary action of the General Court of Massachusetts ; 
and the defenceless people of Rhode Island were left to the 
tender mercies of the Indian savage. 

In 1648, May 25, Governor Coddington in a letter to 
Governor Winthrop states that some of the people on the 
Island are in disgrace with the people of Warwick and Prov- 
idence. 

September 8 of the same year, Coddington and Alex- 
ander Partridge made a formal request of the United 
colonies to be admitted into that alliance, and their request 
was formally answered by the suggestion, that if Rhode 



20' 



HISTORY OF :N^EWP0E,T. 



Island desired the protection of the United Colonies, it had 
better submit to the jurisdiction of Plymouth. 

In 1644, it was ordered that the Island, commonly called 
Aquidneck, shall from henceforth be called the Isle of 
Rhodes, or Rhode Island. 

March 14, l()4o, a charter was granted from the Lord 
Commissioners to the inhabitants of Providence, Portsmouth 
and Newport under the name of the Providence Plantations, 
in the Narragansett Bay in New England, with authority to 
rule themselves in such form of civil government as by vol- 
untary consent of all, or the greater part of them, they 
should find most suitable to their estate and condition. 

This charter was not altogether satisfactory to the peoj)le 
of the Island. They did not like the name of tlie colony. 
It had been granted upon the particular application of the 
Providence and Warwick people, with whom they were not 
in complete unity, without the concurrence of the inhabi- 
tants of the Island, and the name of the Island had been 
omitted in the new name for the colony. 

This want of unity kept open the acceptance of the char- 
ter and the organization of the government up to 1047 when 
the people of the Island presented a body of laws, which was 
accepted by the other colonies, and the charter government 
was then organized. Under this charter, the title of the 
chief magistrate was President, and William Coddington was 
elected president in 1648, and William Baulston was chosen 
one of the assistants. Owing to certain charges having been 
made against these officers, they were suspended in office, 
and if Coddington was found guilty, or from other causes 
the office should be vacant, Jeremiah Clarke was to fill the 
office. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 21 

November 4, 1651, Warwick and Providence appointed 
Roger Williams to go to England, to obtain a confirmation 
of their chartered privileges, the towns on the Island having 
withdrawn and fallen off from the charter government. — 
Coddington obtained from England a commission to be gov- 
ernor of the Island for life. 

This proceeding of Coddington was offensive to many 
of the inhabitants of the Island, for sixty-five of the inhabi- 
tants of Newport and forty-one from Portsmouth employed 
Mr. John Clarke to go to England, to procure the commis- 
sion of Coddington to be vacated. Williams and Clarke 
took passage in the same ship. 

Orders from the Council of State in England having ar- 
rived suspending Coddington's government, the Assembly 
met at Portsmouth, March 1, 1652, to receive them, when it 
was ordered that the officers obstructed by Coddington's 
commission, should stand in their places, and act according 
to their former commissions as if they had been annually 
chosen, until a new election ; and an election was appointed 
to take place the Tuesday succeeding the 15th of the then 
' next May. 

No General Assembly met, however, on the Island, until 
at Newport, May 17, 1653. which was an assembly of the 
electors of the Island only. This assembly assumed control 
of the government of the Island. They proposed that if 
Warwick and Providence would be pleased to act with them, 
that those towns might elect their own officers. They then 
sent James Barker and Richard Knight to demand the 
Statute Book and Book of Records from (Governor Codding- 
ton. Coddington informed the messengers, that he would 
advise with counsel, and then return an answer; for he 
dare not lay down his commission without order thereto; 



22 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

they made some provisions for assisting in tlie prosecu- 
tion of the war against tlie Dutch ; provided for the adjudi- 
cation of prizes brought into Newport, and for the adoption 
of the Laws of Oleron. 

A commission was granted to Edward Hull, to go against 
the Dutch, or aiiy of the enemies of the commonwealth of 
England. This was the commencement of privateering in 
Rhode Island. The action of the Island Assemloly in refer- 
ence to the Dutch war, brought a lively protest from the 
Providence-Warwick Assembly. 

Yet these Assemblies soon united upon terms of settle- 
ment. They then commissioned the Deborah, to go against 
the enemies of England; and on the 13th of September, 1654, 
they approved of the instructions presented by Mr. John 
Clarke, in reference to his mission to England, and desired 
that Roger Williams and Mr. Dexter should manifest as 
much to Mr. Clarke. 

Roger Williams returned from England in 1654, leaving 
Mr. Clarke then sole agent of the colony. 

In 1655, Cromwell wrote to the colony, authorizing it to 
continue its government under the charter of 1643. 

In 1656, Mr. Coddington was chosen one of the commis- 
sioners for Newport to the General Court, when he declared 
that he freely submitted to the authority of his Highness 
in these colonies as now united, with all his heart. 

Upon the return of C'harles II to the throne, John Clarke 
then the sole agent m England of the Providence Planta. 
tions as well as of the Island of Rhode Island, presented to 
the crown two petitions for a charter for the colon}^ which 
should give the inhabitants full liberty in religious concern- 
ments, and a larger measure of civil liberty than was then 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 23 

enjoyed by any other civilized people on earth. This petiti on 
was granted, and November 24, 1663, at a meeting of the 
General Court of commissioners held in Newport, Mr. 
Clarke's letter was opened and read with good delivery ; and 
the King's Gracious Letters' Patent with the broad seal 
thereto affixed, were received, and read by George Baxter : 
and this charter remained the fundamental law of Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations for one hundred and 
eighty yeai-s. 

This charter was the fruit of twelve years' toil of John 
Clarke in England, during which time he had expended all 
of his available funds, and had mortgaged his private prop- 
erty to promote the object he had in hand. 

But the object of his mission had been attained ; the char- 
ter was secure, and his title to be known as the greatest 
benefactor of the colony was fully earned. 

Notwithstanding the depreciating remarks of Graham, I 
firmly believe that there was not then a l)etter balanced mind 
than Clarke's in all America, and Rhode Island never liad 
a more devoted friend. He was prodigal of himself in her 
service, and when he died he gave the remnant of his for- 
tune for the relief of her poor, and the bringing up of her 
children to learning. "The grand motive which turned the 
scale of his life," says Roger AVilllams, "was the truth of God 
— a just liberty to all men's spirits in spiritual matters, togeth- 
er with the peace and prosperity of the whole colony." 

Several of the earl}'^ settlers of Newport were merchants, 
and a considerable commerce grew up with the Dutch at New 
York, and with the English at Barbadoes, and between the 
colony and other places. 

After the battle of Sedgmoor, in 1685, the followers of the 



24 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

Duke of Monmouth were many of them sold to go to the Bar- 
badoes, and from this Ch^ss and from other sources Rhode 
Ish\nd continued to receive considerable accessions to its 
population, and Newport was by far the most flourishing town 
in the colony uj) to the Revolution. 

In January, l(JG-i-5, Roger Williams who though not the au- 
thor was the defender of the charter, said, that the charter 
"givesliberty of our estates * * * not a penny 

to be taken by any one from us withcnit every man's free 
debate by his deputies chosen by himself, and sent to the 
General Assembly. ]^i])erty of society or corporation, of 
sending, or being sent to the General Assembly, of choosing, 
and of being chosen to all offices, and of making or repeal- 
ing laws and constitutions amongst us." 

The colony acted upon this claim, and asserted that as 
between themselves and the British governuu'nt, this charter 
was to be construed as a contract or perpetual covenant, and 
that as such, it was irre[»ealable by the King and parliament 
of England without the assi'ut of the colony; that as between 
the governnu'nt and peo])le of the colony, the charter waS 
their fundamental law. Thv charter, said they, was on the 
one hand binding on the British goviainuent, and on the 
(^tlier liaiid. was alike binding ou tlu; go\-eriiment and jjcople 
of the colony. 

Indeed, the charter contained a provisi(.)n to the effect 
that it should, as against the crown and government of Eng- 
land, be a sufficient warrant and discharge for all acts done 
under and in acc<u'dance with its ])rovisions. 

Yet the liritish government by duress attempted its abro- 
gation with all the New England charters in 1686, and 
appointed Sir JMlminid Andros as governor of the New Eng- 
land coh)nies, who broke the seal of the charter, and assumed 



HISTORY OF JTEWPORT. 25 



the government of Rhode Island; but the revolution in Eng- 
land of 1688, put an end to the Andros government ; and had 
Andros beendisposed to persist after that eveM, in oppressing 
the colonies, he probably would have been sent to his God 
without the intervention of judge or jury, but as it was, he 
was sent home, and the colony resumed the charter; and 
continued to act under it, and treated as void its vacation or 
surrender as an act done under duress. 

Almost from the foundation of the Rhode Island Colony, 
there was a class of the colonists who did not fully accept the 
faith and order of the Baptists, or the doctrines of any recog- 
nized sect of Christians. These were denominated "Seekers." 
They accepted the scriptures as they were revealed to them, 
but awaited further revelations through the operations of the 
Holy Spirit. The arrival of the Quakers in this country 
about 1656, and in subsequent years, and the inhospitable 
manner in which they were received in the other colonies, 
induced these people to come to Rhode Island and the "Seek- 
ers" here readily affiliated with the Quakers, who soon be- 
came a very important element in the colony. And this sect 
has always formed an important part of the population of 
the State, and though now they are much scattered, there 
remains a few in standing amongst us, who remind us of the 
pastoral oaks in the summer field, they bespeak the charac- 
ter of those whom they represent, and are a perpetual bene- 
diction to all about them. 

In Philip's war the people of Newport took but little part 

beyond affording succor to the white victims of the war who 

came to them for protection. They were shut out from the 

united colonies, yet they constantly kept watch and ward, 

fearing that they might be attacked by the Indians. Mr. 

Easton's house was burned by an Indian, but it is by no 
4 



26 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

means certain whether this was the result of accident or de- 
sign ; few of the people of Newport took part in that war. 

The French war which followed the Indian war, hetween 
1685 and 1695, was the source of considerable annoyance 
to the people of Newport from depredations occasioned by 
French cruisers. 

In 1709 and 1710 the colony was called upon by the home 
government to lit out a force to act in conjunction with forces 
from the other colonies against Annapolis Royal. Newport 
raised between fifty and sixty men to go on this expedition. 
The colony to pay the expenses of this expedition, in an evil 
hour, commenced the issue of paiDcr money. Though the ex- 
pedition of 1710 was successful, the colony lost a vessel and 
incurred a large expenditure of money. 

In 1730 the population of Newport was 4,610. At that 
time the population of Providence, which embraced what is 
now the county of Providence with the exception of Cum- 
berland, East Providence, and that part of Pawtucket east of 
the Seekonk river, was but 3,916. 

In 1738 there was belonging to Newport upwards of one 
hundred vessels engaged in commerce with various parts of 
the world. 

War was declared between France and England in the 
spring of 1744. Our coast swarmed with French privateers, 
to the great detriment of the commerce of Newport, and es- 
pecially of its fisheries. But privateering was a service in 
which two parties could engage, and as the Avar was not al- 
together unexpected, the merchants and seamen of Newport 
were not altogether unprepared for the emergency. 'J'here 
Avere many privateers fitted out from here and during the 
year 1745 more than twenty prizes, "some of them of great 



aiSTORY OF NEWPORT. 27 

value, were sent into Newport," and notwithstanding 
the annoyances from French privateers the commerce of the 
place was exceedingly prospej'ous during the war. 

The colony fitted out its sloopTartar with ninety men, 
under Captain Fones, with three companies, to go against 
Louisburg. Captain Fones, off Cape Breton, encountered a 
French frigate, and by a skillful manoeuvre rendered good 
service to the expedition. The merchants, principally of 
Newport, advanced <£ 8000 to hire a twenty gun ship for that 
service, and the agent of the Rhode Island colony, Richard 
Partridge, wrote to Mr. Ramsden, l^ecretary of the Lords 
Justices, that "in the wars of the late Queen in the expedi- 
tion against Annapolis Royal and against Canada, and in the 
sea-war at that time, the New Englanders must confess that 
the privateers from the colony of Rhode Island did more exe- 
cution against the enemy's privateers that infested this coast, 
than all the ships of the Massachusetts, or indeed, of all the 
colonies of those parts put together." 

In 1758 the Newport Mercury was first published by 
James Franklin, the nephew of Dr. Benjamin Franklin.^^ 

In the later French war, from 1756 to 1763, the commerce 
of Newport suffered much from French privateers, Newport 
having lost more than 100 vessels by capture. But during 
this period Newport had nearly 50 vessels engaged in priva- 
teering. 

The passage of the stamp act, and the restricted trade laws 
which passed Parliament soon after the close of the war with 
France, greatly irritated the people of Newport. The con- 
stant presence of British cruisers, under the command of 
arrogant officers, interfering with the commerce of the port, 
and forcibly impressing seamen from our mercantile marine, 



28 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

was a constant threat to the hundreds of privateersmen who 
had been trained to adventures of daring and desperation 
such as had no rival, if equalled, in the annals of naval war- 
fare, could not readily submit to the constant menaces 
which they were receiving from British cruisers. 

The people of this colony from the beginning, as we have 
seen, claimed that their charter was a compact with the Brit- 
ish crown, a contract which even Parliament could not 
break. That by this charter the colony had the exclusive 
right of self government, including the sole right to tax 
themselves. 

The British government claimed the right to govern and 
bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Here the parties 
took issue in trial by battle, which was not finally settled 
until the treaty of Paris in 1783. 

The Rubicon was soon passed, the torch of Ate lighted, 
and the dogs of war let slip. The news of Concord and 
Lexington set the town on fire with the determination to 
resist the encroachment upon the rights of the country, to 
death. 

It has been said that 1000 men from this town alone went 
out to engage the foe upon the sea, and 1000 such men never 
before went out from any one port to fight upon the deep. 
Many of them had been trained under such commanders as 
Dennis, Read, and other privateer commanders.-^ -^ 

What was Newport in 1774? the year before the break- 
ing out of the war. It was full of commercial enterprise. 
Its maratime adventures extended everywhere not prohibited 
by the Home goverment. Newport had earned and was then 
better entitled than any other port in America to the glow- 
ing commendation bestowed by Edmund Burke in Parlia- 
ment upon American maratime enterprise. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 29 

In the year 1763 from January 1st to January 1st, 1764, 
after the losses by the French war, there were 182 vessels 
cleared from Newport on foreign voyages, and o52 had cleared 
coastwise, and in these and in tishing vessels were employed 
2200 seamen. 

In the two months of June and July, 1774, there were 
entered at the Custom House in Newport 64 vessels from 
foreign voyages, 132 coastwise, and 17 engaged in the whale 
fishery. 

The population of Newport tlien was 9,209 souls, but the 
events of the succeeding year reduced this number by 4000. 

There were at this time thirty distilleries in operation in 
Newport. 

Perhaps the people of Newport possessed in 1774 as much 
wealth, enterprise, intelligence eind refinement as any other 
place in America. 

There were then 300 families of Jews in Newport, repre- 
sented by men of great learning, intelligence and enterprise, 
but they are all gone ; the dwelling houses which they 
erected, their synagogue and their grave-yard are the only 
memorials left to us of their existence. Let no vandal hand 
of desecration ever be laid upon that synagogue or that grave- 
yard, but let them remain, and keep them preserved forever 
as venerated memorials of a frugal and useful people, who in 
their day and generation contributed to the prosperity and 
renown of Newport. 

But let us pause to consider the acts which preceded the 
Revolution : In Rhode Island there were three causes which 
may be said to have induced the people to enter into the 
spirit of the Revolution, viz: Taxation, impressment of 
seamen, the jurisdiction conferred upon the admiralty courts. 



30 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

To these may be added the refusal of the British gov- 
ernment to pay a debt due to the colony for advances made 
by the colony during the Seven Years' War with France. 

The first act of open resistance to the British authority 
which has come to our notice, took place at Newport on the 
9th of July, 1764. On the 18th of the preceding June, rear 
Admiral Lord Colville, in command of his majesty's ship, 
the Squirrel, and other armed vessels then in American 
waters, advised the home government that he had directed 
four of the armed vessels to spread themselves in the princi- 
pal harbors between Casco Bay and Cape Henlopen, in order 
to raise men for the navy. 

The St. John, under command of Lieutenant Hill, came 
into the harbor of Newport on the 30th of the same June, 
(1764). Upon the arrival of this vessel, her commanding 
officer was informed that the brig Basto, from Monte 
Chriso, under command of one Wingate, had landed a 
cargo of sugar, at a place now called Bridgeport near How- 
land's Ferry in Tiverton. The St. John immediately started 
for Bridgejjort, seized the cargo of sugar, ninety-three hogs- 
heads, and the next day seized the brig as she lay above the 
ferry, and brought the vessel and cargo to Newport. 

Upon the. arrivsil of the vessels at Newport, it was ascer- 
tained tliat Lieutenant Hill had never bt'cn properly qualified 
on his commission, and the collector of customs reseized the 
cargo. Lieutenant Hill was arrested and compelled to give 
security that the vessel and cargo should not be taken out 
of tlie jurisdiction of the colony. 

(_)n the 9th of July, while these vessels were in the har- 
bor of Newport, including the Admiral's ship, the Squirrel, it 
was alleged that thi-ee of the crew of the St. John had com- 



HISTOKY OF NEWPORT. 31 

mitted a larceny in the town ; one of the offenders was caught 
on shore and arrested, and the town officers went on board 
the St. John and demanded the other offenders, but they 
were not given up. 

The commanding officer of the St. John sent an*arnied 
boat fully manned, on shore, ostensibly to get oiie Thomas 
Moss, who it was alleged was a deserter; whether he was the 
thief or had been put on board by the jjress gang, does not 
appear, for the story is told by British officers, — at any rate 
the people assembled on the Long Wharf and would not 
permit the man to be taken away. The St. John fired 
a swivel at the crowd. The people took Mr. Doyle, the 
commanding officer of the boat into custody, and in the melee 
wounded most of the boat's crew, and they threatened to 
haul the schooner on shore and burn her. A sloop was 
manned from the wharf which sailed around the St. John, 
when a swivel was fired from the St. John as a signal to the 
Squirrel for assistance. The St. John was got un- 
derweigh, and was anchored under the protection of the 
guns of the Squirrel. The people from the shore went over 
to Fort George, now Fort Wolcott, and took possession of 
the guns of the fort. An officer from the Squirrel arrived at 
the fort to remonstrate against the use of the guns, but he 
was knocked down, beaten and sent away. The guns were 
then trained on the offending vessel and eight shots were fired 
at her. 

Arthur Brown,^^ a native of Newport, in his miscellaneous 
writings, p. 227, says : "I myself saw one American fort fire 
upon the Squirrel, a King's ship, in 1764, in the harbor of 
Newport." 

Captain Smith waited upon the governor and council and 
demanded a proper acknowledgment. He was told by them 



32 HISTOKY OF NEWPORT. 

that the men had acted ])y authority, and that the govern- 
ment would answer for it when it was necessary for them to 
do so. 

Rear Admiral Lord Col ville called upon deputy governor 
Wanton, in reference to the matter, and the admiral was told 
by the de[)uty governor that he must pursue his legal rem- 
edy. 

The stamp act had been passed, and Dr. Moffit, Augustus 
Johnston and Martin Howard had l^een appointed to carr}'- it 
into effect in Newport on the 27th of August, A. D., 1765. 
The people of Newport asscml)led on the Parade on that day, 
in front of the State House, having with them a cart and the 
effigies of three stamp officers with halters about their necks. 
These effigies were carried to a gallows and were hung up to 
public view until near night. The people assembled on the 
following day; and broke in tho doors and demolished the 
furniture in the houses of Moffit and Howard. The three 
stamp officers took refuge on Ijoard of a British arined vessel 
in tlie harbor. 

On the 30th of the same August, the collector, controller 
and searcher of the customs, followed the example of Moffit, 
Howard and Johnston,'^^ and left the town, taking up their 
abode on board of a British armed vessel in the harbor. In 
September the General Assembly resolved that the British 
Parliament had no right to lay any internal taxes on the peo- 
ple of this colony, and they directed the officers of the colony 
to disregard such levies, and that the Assembly would indem- 
nify the officers in so doing. 

The offence of the officers of the customs at Newport, 
was the seizure of a sloop by the Cygnet, with a cargo of mo- 
lasses, and the proceeding to condemn lier ])efore Dr. Spoy^ 
in a court of admiralty at Halifax. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 33 

On the 11th of June, 1765, the ship Maidstone, a British 
armed vessel in the harbor of Newport, had seized and im- 
pressed several of the inhabitants of the colony to act as 
seamen on board of that vessel. Governor Ward had re- 
peatedly demanded the liberation of these men, but his de- 
mand was not complied with. After the men were impressed 
the boat of the Maidstone happened to be on shore, when 
she was taken possession of by the populace and burned. 

Governor Ward addressed a very spirited letter to Cap- 
tain Antrobus on the 12th of July, again demanding the 
liberation of the impressed seamen. 

One Champlain, who was in the habit of furnishing sup- 
plies for the Maidstone, was seized, and forcibly pre- 
vented from supplying the ship, of which conduct the com- 
mander of the ship complained to Governor Ward. The 
latter replied that this conduct of the inhabitants was the re- 
sult of the resentment they had conceived at the impress- 
ment and detention of sundry inhabitants of the town on 
board of the Maidstone. 

In June, two vessels with cargoes, the Wains(x)tt and the 
Nelly, had been seized in Providence, and had failed of being 
condemned in the admiralty court of Rhode Island. This 
was the pretext for sending the case of the sloop and cargo 
taken by the Cygnet to Halifax for adjudication. 

The officers to execute the Stamp Act declined to accept 
their offices and no stamps were offered for sale in Rhode 
Island. The Stamp Act was repealed, but its repeal was 
accompanied with a declaration in favor of tlic right of Par- 
liament to tax the colonies. 

The officers of the colony addressed themselves with zeal 
to the collection of their dues from the British government 
5 



34 



HISTORY OF OT^WPOKT. 



for the advances made by the colony during the French war. 
They had received drafts on Connecticut and Pennsylvania, 
which were deficient in their que it as, for a part of their claim, 
but there was a large l)alance yet due to the colony. The 
reply came — you first pay jVIofht. Howard and Johnston for 
the damages done by the mob — a condition that was never 
complied with. And the claims of the colony have never 
been ])aid. The British government honestly owes the 
amount with the interest thereon, to Khode Island now. 

As soon as the Stamp Act was repealed, the government 
again opened a corresjDondence with the home government 
in reference to the claim of the colony for advances made 
during the French war. The claim was earnestly pressed, 
its justice was not denied, but its pa3'ment was refused. 

In May, 1769, a sloop from the West Indies belonging to 
Providence, was seized by the armed sloop Liberty and car- 
ried to Newport. 

On the 17th of the following .July, the olhcers of the Lil)- 
erty seized and brought into Newport a brig and a sloop 
belonging to Connecticut, taken in tlie Sotuid, witliout the 
jurisdiction of the colony. This seizure was on Monday : on 
Wednesday the captain of the brig went on board to obtain 
some necessary articles of clothing, ln' \\as informed that his 
clothing had lieen taken on board of the Liberty. He ob- 
served some of the ci'cw of the Lilieity stripping his vessel 
and (h'sired them to desist, but ^e(■ei^ id the most abusive 
language in re]ily. He th(^n proposed to go on shore but 
missing his sword civilly inquired for it : and was infoinu'd 
that one of the men from the Liberty hiy on it in the cal)in. 
The captain went to the cabin for the sword and was accost- 
ed with a volley of oaths and iuq)recations. The captain 



HISTOKY OF NEWPORT. 35 

then took his sword, when it was seized by one of the Liber- 
tj^'s men who attempted to wrest it from him, but did not 
succeed. The captain then got into his boat with two of his 
men. Wlien he was going on shore from his vessel, he was 
fired upon with a brace of balls from the Liberty ; a swivel 
was then levelled at the boat but it flashed. There was a 
large number of people on the wharf witnessing this extraor- 
dinary proceeding. At the time Captain Read, of the Liberty, 
was on shore, and he was compelled by the inhabitants to 
order his men on shore, to answer for their conduct. 

A number of men from the shore went on board and cut 
the cables of the Liberty, and brought the vessel to the 
wharf; cut away her mast, rendering her unfit for service, 
and scuttled her ; afterwards she was got over to the north 
end of Goat Island and burned. The boats were dragged 
up the Parade, so swiftly over the pavements, that they left 
a stream of fire several feet long in their rear. They were 
taken through Broad street to what is now Liberty Park, 
and there they were burned. 

There was no evidence of any illicit conduct against the 
brig. Her cargo was regularly entered at the Custom House 
in Newport. 

While the Liberty was being destroyed, the Connecticut 
sloop, which had been seized, got underweigh and left the 
harbor, and afterwards the brig obtained a regular clearance 
from the Custom House and left Newport. 

May 3, 1768, an affray occurred at the foot of Mary 
street in Newport, between some midshipmen belonging to 
the Senegal, a British man-of-war, in the harbor, and some 
of the people of the town, in which Henry Sparker was run 
through the body by a British officer named Thomas Cur- 
less. 



36 HISTOKY OF NEWPORT. 

In 1769, the people of Providence assembled in great 
numbers and violently seized one Jesse Savillt% a tide-waiter 
belonging to the Custom House, while in the exercise of his 
duty, and after committing various outrages upon his person, 
proceeded to tar and feather him. 

In April, 1771, the collector of the port of Newport, 
Charles Dudley-^ while in the execution of the duties of his 
office, preserilx'd l)y the British government, was assaulted 
by a body of the people, who denied the validity of his offi- 
cial acts, and he was roughly handled. This conduct was 
the subject of a letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to the 
governor and company of the colony, under date of July 
19th, 1771, in which the Earl complains, *'That it appears 
that some of the most violent of these outrages (on the offi- 
cers of the customs), have been committed at Newport in 
Rhode Island, particularly in April last, when the collector 
of his majesty's customs at that port was, in the execution of 
his duty, assaulted and grossly ill-treated, even to the danger 
of his life, by a number of the inhabitaiits without any pro- 
tection beiug given him." 

The destruction of the Gaspee in 1772, is a subject too 
familiar for discussion at this time. 

Deceml)er <)ih, 1774, more tliau forty cannon, with a large 
amount of powder and shot, were seized and taken from Fort 
George, now Fort Wolcott, and conveyed to a place of safe- 
tj. 

Wallace, the commander of the British force in the harbor 
of Newport, waited upon Governor Wanton-^ and denumded 
an exphination of this act. Governor Wanton told him that 
" It was done to prevent him from seizing the guns, and that 
they would be used against any enemy of the colony," 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 37 

Andrews, the British historian of the Revolution, says, 
'-'■ Newport, the capital of Rhode Island, was the place where 
these proceedhigs first commenced. Forty pieces of cannon, 
mounted in the batteries tliat protected the harbor, were car- 
ried off by the inhabitants. The captain of a man-of-war, 
having waited upon the governor, who in that Province is 
chosen by the Assembly, to inquire into the cause of such a 
proceeding, was explicitly told, that the people had seized 
them that they might not be used against themselves by the 
British forces; and that they intended to employ them in 
their own defence, against any one that should attack them. 

•'After taking this measure the Assembly met, and agreed 
that arms and warlike stores should be purchased with the 
public money. Resolutions were passed for training the in- 
habitants, and every man was expected to prepare himself 
for a vigorous defence of the rights and liberties of his coun- 
try. The colony of New Hampshire had hitherto acted with 
great moderation during these disturbances ; but on receiv- 
ing intelligence of the proclamation forbidding the export of 
arms to the colonies and of the proceedings in consequence 
of it at Rhode Island, they resolved to imitate them." 

The people of New Hampshire seized the cannon at Ports- 
mouth, with the munitions of war, and stored the powder 
under the pulpit of the Congregational Church. 

May 4th, 1776, the General Assembly of Rhode Island, 
in session in the State House in Newport, repealed the act 
securing the allegiance of the people to the British crown, 
and ordered that the use of the King's name be discontinued in 
all papers and proceedings in the colony. Thus just two 
months before the 4th of July, 1776, the people of Rhode 
Island threw off their allegiance to the British crown and 
set up an independent State. 



38 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

The Newport Mercury, then published by Solomon South- 
wick,-*" and contributed to by such men as Ezra Stiles-'' and 
Samuel Hopkins,-^ did much to arouse the people to the duties 
of that time. The histor}- of Newport can never be faith- 
fully written without assigning to these men a j^rominent 
place among its benefactoi^s. 

^•^Vfter the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia, 
and on the receipt of that declaration in Newport on the 
18th of July, 1776, the General Assembly met and ratified 
the declaration, and pledged themselves to support it with 
their lives and fortunes. The declaration was then read to 
the people by Major John Handy from the Court House 
steps, and fifty years later it was again read by the same in- 
dividual to the people, from tlie same place. 

The General Assembly then declared the style of gov- 
ernment of the State to be the State of Rhode Island and 
Pro^ddence Plantations, and enacted a law to punish all 
persons who should in any way acknowledge in this colony 
the sovereignty of Great Britain. 

The people of Newport had often met together, and had 
often resolved that they would die or be free. The news of 
the fighting at Lexington and Concord came to ready minds 
and willing hands. The guns fired that day echoed and re- 
echoed over the land, vibrated and re-vibrated, and the 
sound never died away, until it was hushed in the Treat}^ of 
Paris. 

The legislature was at once convened, and an army of ob- 
servation, consisting of fifteen hundred men, was raised. 
Wanton, then governor, would not commission the officers, 
but Henry Ward, Secretary of State, was ordered to sign the 
commissions and did so, no doubt, cheerfully. In the fol- 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 39 

lowing October, a second regiment, of seven hundred and fifty- 
men, was ordered to be raised, and then Wanton was re- 
moved from office. 

Captain James Wallace, in command of {he British sloop 
of war Eose, commanded the harbor of Newport for thf first 
two years of the war, and inflicted great distress upon its in- 
habitants; and on the 6th of December, 1776, the British 
army under General Clinton took possession of the town, 
and retained it until November, 1771*. 

The battle of Rhode Island was fought in August, 1778. 
In July of that year, the French fleet under Count de 
Estaing, consisting of eleven sail of the line, and a large 
number of transports, arrived at Newport, but this fleet re- 
tired before the battle on the Island. 

Just two years later, July 10th, 1780, Admiral Count de 
Rochambeau arrived with another fleet, consisting of forty- 
four sail, and six thousand troops. 

Captain Wallace retained command of Newport harbor 
up to April 14th, 1776, when his force' was so annoyed by 
the continental troops under Colonel Richmond, that he went 
to sea. He encountered Admiral Hopkins off Block Island, 
and then returned to Newport, but was again driven off. 
Four days later the Cabot, one of Hopkins' fleet, arrived in 
Newport with ten pieces of heavy cannon, a part of the arm- 
ament which had been captured at New-Providence. During 
the skirmishing with Wallace, two row galle3's from the town 
took a brig and a sloop, which were prizes to the British 
ship Scarborough. In Deceml^er, 1777, a large British fleet 
of transpoits entered the liarbor of Newport with the view 
of taking on board the army of General Burgoyne, and about 



40 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

the 1st of January, 1778, the Bristol and several other Brit- 
ish war vessels arrived, which created alarm and apprehen- 
sion at Providence and throughout the State. 

The Providence Gazette of January 10th, 177s. contains 
an appeal which exhibited the condition of affairs then pre- 
vailing in Newport. It reads thus, viz: "The charitable 
and well-disposed persons in this and neighboring States are 
requested to extend their douidions to the ])Oor and distress- 
ed people who were lately inhabitants of the Island of Rhode 
Island, men and women bowed down Avith old age and infirm- 
ities, helpless children, persons with large families, having 
lately l)een driven from their once peaceful habitations and 
turned into the wide world, destitute of every means to sup- 
port themselves, by the cruel and rapat'ious liritons and 
their nu'rcenaries, who have strijjjx'd them of the small ])it- 
tance the}' were once ])ossessed ol', and ha\e h'ft them to 
depend entinly upon the diarity of the good peo})le. Their 
distresses loudly eall upon the humanity of those whose cir- 
cumstances will atlmit to relieve the necessities of those who 
are almost ready to perish." 

[•'roni this tiuie until the town was evaeuatecl by the 
British. e(iii(i'ihut ions were reiH'ived tV(un States, towns. ])ar- 
ishes, religious societies, (•oni})anies and indi\iduals. 

In the fall of 1777, (ieneral S]iencer in command of 
Khode Island. |)roposed lo maki' an erioit to take Newport 
from the enemy. I'he iiritish connnandt'r received intelli- 
gence of the intentions of (ieneral Spencer, and made 
preparations to resist the pro|iosed attad-;. He raised the 
stream which enters I'^aston's Pond, by the construction 
of dams, threw uji a line ol" breastworks from Miantonomi 
Hill across to the pond, and sent some sixty of the inhabi- 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 41 

tants of the town on board the prison ship Lord Sandwich^^ ; 
there was also a number of the inhabitants imprisoned in the 
Newport jail. 

General Clinton relinquished command of the British 
force on the Island in January, 1777, to Earl Percy. Earl 
Percy retained the command until the 5th of the following- 
May, when General Prescott took the command, who was 
afterwards captured by Barton and his associates at the 
"Overing place." 

In 1778, General Sullivan was ordered to collect a force 
to attack the British on Rhode Island. 

General Prescott, having been exchanged, arrived in 
Newport, with the Thirty-eighth Regiment, two regiments 
" of Anspatch", Colonel Fanning's new corps and a detach- 
ment of artillery. 

The French force under the Count de Estaing, arrived 
on the eleventh day of July. Two of the French ships enter- 
ed the west passage and came around the north en'd of 
Conanicut. The others came in and anchored in the outer 
harbor. The enemy blew up the Kingfisher, 16 guns, and 
two galleys in the East River upon the approach of the two 
French ships. The Lark, 32, the Orpheus, 32, the Juno, 32, 
and the Cerebus, 28, were run on shore and burnt. The 
Grand Turk, a transport of eleven hundred tons burthen, 
was set on fire at her moorings off the Point ; when her ca- 
bles were burnt off, she drifted up against Dennis's wharf, 
where her hull was sunk. Fifteen transports were sunk be- 
tween what is now Fort Adams and the Gull Rocks. The 
Flora, 32, with the Falcon sloop of war, 18, and about thirty 
unarmed vessels of various sizes were sunk in the inner har- 
bor. The Flora was finally raised and put afloat by the 



42 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

Americans, after the evacuation of the town by the British. 

Sir Kul)ert Pigot superseded General Prescott in the eom- 
niaud of the British army before the l)attle of Rhode IsLand. 

The French naval force would not co-operate with the. 
army, and the battle of Rhode Island of August 28th and 
29th, 1778, was lost to the Americans. In the following 
November, there were twelve ships of the line and two frig- 
ates in the harbor of Newport. On the 22nd of December, 
1778, occurred the snow-storm known as "the Hessian snow- 
storm," in which considerable numbers of the British force 
were frozen to death. The British left the town, October 
25th, 1779. 

The Quaker field was their forage-yard. Their wood 
yard was on the north side of Church street, and General 
Prescott's head-quarters was the Bannister house on the 
corner of Spring and Pelham streets. In summer the Brit- 
ish soldiers were quartered in tents, and in winter in the 
houses in town. It is said that four hundred and eighty 
buildings of various kinds were destroyed in Newport during 
the war. 

The freemen convened in town-meeting at the Friends" 
meeting-house on the 3rd of November, 1770, for purpose of 
re-organizing the town government. Town-meetings were 
afterwards held in this meeting-house, and then in the Jew- 
ish synagogue. 

The winter of 1779-80 was the most severe on record. 
The people of Newport were then destitute of almost all of 
the necessaries of life. '^I'hey took down George Rome's 
house and store, and broke up Joseph Wanton, Jr.'s ship, 
and distributed them as fuel among the poor. The story of 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 43 

"the hard winter" of 1780 is too distressing and too familiar 
to be dwelt upon. 

The public buildings of the town including State house, 
jail and churches, had all been left in an untenantable con- 
dition with the exception of Trinity church, and the pastor 
of that church went off with the British army. The Rev. 
Gardner Thurston, a Baptist minister, was permitted to oc. 
cupy this church for some years after the war. 

The British carried off the records of the town, and these 
were sunk in Hell Gate, and were so injured that the great- 
er part was rendered worthless for any practical purpose. 

On the morning of March 6th, 1781, General Washington 
crossed Conanicut and landed on the Long Wharf in New- 
port, to confer with the French officers then here, and to 
induce them to co-operate in an expedition against the ene- 
my in Virginia. 

After the evacuation of Newport by the British, the peo- 
ple of the town continued to fit out a few privateers. The 
Rochambeau, 12, under the command of the celebrated Oliver 
Read, was fitted out, and took several prizes. 

At the close of the war, John Goodrich, who had been 
an ardent Loyalist during the war, applied to Newport for 
permission to settle here with his family, and proposed 
to bring with him iwenty vessels to engage in commerce, 
but considering the active part Goodrich had taken in the 
war, the people of the town by a large majority voted that 
he should not settle in the town. 

During the Revolution, there were in the Provincial 
armies 231,959 men. Of these were furnished from New 
England 118,350, more than half of the entire force ; New- 
port alone, it has been said, furnished 1000 men to the naval 



44 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 



service of the colonies. Rhode Island furnished to'the Con- 
tinental army 11,692 men out of a population of 50,000. I 
have been told that at one time Rhode Island had more 
soldiers in the Revolutionary army than all of the States 
south of Mason and Dixon's line, and during the latter part 
of the old French war and after the close of that war, Rhode 
Island was called upon and did, at a very great sacrifice, 
actually furnish a very considerable force for the defence of 
the northern frontier of the colony of New York. Upon 
these services with others, the States of New England, under 
the Constitution, assert their rights in the American Union. 

In Newport, as elsewhere, there were Loyalists. Some of 
them took an active part in favor of the crown ; these left 
the colony. Conspicuous among them were the Romes, 
Brentons, Halliburtons, Wantons and others. There was 
another class whose sympathies were with the crown, and 
who, without being open, active enemies, declined to give 
their adherence to the Revolutionary cause. When General 
Heath took command of the Continental forces on the Island, 
the town called upon all persons to subscribe to a test oath, 
and those who refused to subscribe, had their names taken, and 
the same constituted what was known as the "Black List," 
and was handed to Greneral Heath, as being the names of 
suspected persons who were to be dealt with in an emergency. 
That list remains yet among the records of Newport, and 
may be consulted by any one who has the curiosity to exam- 
ine it. 

At the close of the Revolutionary war Newport presented 
a sad spectacle. Hundreds of buildings had been destroyed, 
the vessels and wharves had gone to decay together. The 
Loyalists had gone into exile, and many of their estates had 
been confiscated. Non-combatants, who early in the war had 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 45 

left their homes, had become domiciled elsewhere, the busi- 
ness capital of the place had been exhausted, the war 
had forced business into other channels and its men of affairs 
had followed their trade to other localities. The forests and 
groves of native trees had been cut down, the farm fences 
had been wasted, farm stock had been consumed, and 
farm tools had been worn out; schools broken up, churches 
scattered, houses deserted, buildings out of repair and ruin 
was stamped on everything which eight years before was 
alive with prosperity and full of every promise that success 
in its full tide would crown the efforts of an industrious, in- 
telligent and enterprising people. Upon the return of peace 
Newport had neither the men nor the means to restore or 
replace the ravages which war had made. 

At about the time of peace Dr. Ezra Stiles returned to 
to visit the remnant which was left of his devoted 
church. He had accepted the Presidency of Yale col- 
lege, and was in the enjoyment of great popularity in New 
Haven. In his diary is an entry which states a fact, and 
conveys an eloquent expression of his devotion to the home 
from which he had been exiled. "I judge,'' says he, "that 
about 300 dwelling houses have been destroyed in Newport. 
The town is in ruins, but, with Nehemiah, I could prefer the 
very dust of Zion to the gardens of Persia, and the broken 
walls of Jerusalem to the palaces of Shushan." 

Brissot, the Girondist, while he was in exile from France 
in 1788, visited Newport. He was not a friendly critic, but 
draws a picture of what he saw, which we may study with 
profit. After speaking of Newport before the war, he adds : 
"Since the peace everything is changed, the reign of solitude 
is only interrupted by groups of idle men standing with 



46 HISTOEY OF NEWPORT. 

folded arms at the corner of the streets, houses falling to 
ruin, miserable shops which present nothing but a few coarse 
stuffs, or baskets of apples, and other articles of little value ; 
grass growing in the public square in front of the court of 
justice, rags stuffed in the windows. * * * * 

Everything announces misery." The unkind Frenchman, 
after denouncing paper money and its consequences, adds: 
"But in the midst of these disorders you hear nothing of 
robberies, of murders, or of mendacity, for the poor do not 
degrade themselves so as to abjure ideas of equity and shame. 
* * * The Rhode Islander does not beg and he 
does not steal." 

Newport was then an asylum for famine ; the war had 
destroyed it, and taken from its population the means of re- 
building it. They had liberty, but nothing else. The 
times were unpropitious. The Revolution was followed 
soon by the quasi war with France, and the war between 
England and France, involving the orders in council, the de- 
crees of Berlin and Milan. Then came the embargo of 1808, 
which was followed by the war of 1812. These events 
visited disaster upon the efforts made to revive the trade of 
the place, drove commerce from the port, and labor fr6m the 
workshops, so that for fifty years after the Revolution there 
was scarcely a new house built in the town. 

At the close of the Revolution, America was grateful to 
E'rance for the aid it had given her in its contest with 
England for national existence. The natural attractions of 
Newport, and of the island of Rhode Island, had fascinated 
the Frenchmen, and France, as an evidence of American 
gratitude, coveted the cession of this island, on the plea that 
it would afford a suitable naval station for France, and that 



HISTORY OF ]SrEWPORT. 47 



it would be impossible for the United States to defend the 
island against Great Britain, but fortunately for us, and for- 
tunately for the American union, the advances of France in 
this negotiation were resisted, and this island to-day remains 
the garden of the Republic. 

The experiences of mankind demonstrate that a circulat- 
ing medium without any intrinsic value and depending alone 
for its conversion or redemption upon the public faith, that 
when it becomes highly inconvenient for the public to re- 
deem its pledge, the result is disastrous to both public 
and private credit. 

The first issue of paper money in Rhode Island was for 
the purpose of enabling the colony in 1710, to fit out an ex- 
pedition against Annapolis Royal. 

Paper money was finally made a legal tender, l)y an act 
of the General Assembly. The subject was one of active 
party contests, and finally visited upon the colony discredit 
and pecuniary embarrassment. The merchants and people of 
Newport, with the exception of a few ambitious politicians, 
were constant in their opposition to the paper money jjarty. 
The paper money party opposed the adoption of the federal 
constitution, which the people of Newport ardently promoted 

At the September term of the Supreme Court, 1786, held 
in Newport, occurred one of the most remarkable trials in 
the judicial history of the State. It was the case of Trevett 
vs. Weeden. Weeden kept a market and Trevett had pur- 
chased of him butcher's meat, and had offered to pay for it 
in paper money. Weeden declined to accept the tender, and 
Trevett filed his information against Weeden to recover the 
statutory penalty for his refusal. Weeden defended the suit 
on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the statute. The 



48 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

trial was exciting, party spirit ran high, the judges had been 
elected by a paper money legislature, and at the next spring 
election they were to be dejDendent upon- the same Ijody for a 
re-election, yet the court kept its integrity and declared 
the law to he unconstitutional. The General Assembly 
brought the court before it to give reasons for its decision. 
The members of the court told the Assembly that they were 
responsible for their judgments only to God and their own 
consciences. 

In May, 1784, Newport was incorporated under a city 
form of government. In 1787 the city had assumed 
the defense of a suit of Nicholas Easton vs. Giles San- 
ford, for taking graA^el from Easton's beach. Easton pro- 
cured the signatures of lOo persons to a jjetition to re- 
peal the city charter, as a retaliatory measure for inter- 
fering iu his law-suit, and though there were 400 remonstrants 
against granting the ])rayer of the petition, Easton and his 
j)arty prevailed, for the majority of the people of Newport 
were hostile to the paper money of that time, and were not 
in favor with the party in power. jNIarch 1st of this year Peter 
Edes started the Newport Herald, based upon oj)position to 
paper mone\'. 

In 1708, April 17th, tlie board of trade wrote to the (lovern- 
or of tlie colony in reference to the African slave trade, 
informing him of "the absolute necessit}^ that a trade so ben- 
eficial to the kingdom should be carried on to the greatest 
advantage." At that time the })opulation of Newport was 
:2,20H, and the entire population of the colony was 7,181. 

The trade of Newport then was with Jamaica, Nevis, 
Haibadoes, St. Christopher's, Mt. Sarratt and Bermuda, and 
the Salt Islands, South and North Carolina, Virginia and 
Maryland, and the other colonies, Madeira, Fayal, Surinam, 
and Curacoa. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 49 

After having been stimulated by the home government, 
though but few slaves were brought into this colony, there 
were persons in Newport who were engaged to a considerable 
extent in the slave trade ; but while this is true, it is equally 
true that Newport had some of the earliest and most effective 
enemies of this traffic and of human slavery, who if not the 
originators, were the warm and earnest friends of African 
coLonization. 

Newport has almost always sustained a good classical 
school. Frazer's school was thorough in its instruction, and 
Rogers' school was known the country over. The object of 
a school is to direct and train the mind of the young for 
future usefulness, and if the success of a school is to be judged 
by the success of the pupils who attend it, the old Rogers 
school should be classed among the first institutions of its 
kind then in the country. The new Rogers school now so 
full of promise of future usefulness, if it rivals or equals the 
fame of the school where the Channings, the Perrys, the 
Allstons, Pickingses and Calhouns were trained, it will 
amply repay the bounty of its benevolent founder, and will 
lay the foundation for a new era in the history of the city. 
Our system of education is supplemented by the Redwood 
and the People's libraries. Of the former institution its his- 
tory has been often written ; of the latter I can only say its 
benevolent founder and benefactor is yet among us, and the 
time has not come to write its history. 

Newport was subject to conflicting influences at the time 
of the breaking out of the war of 1812. It had had a terri- 
ble experience of the effects of war during the Revolution. 
The orders in council, and the decrees of Berlin and Milan 
had affected its commerce adversely. The impressment of 
its seamen into a British service, and an attempt to hold 
7 



50 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

them even in its own port,^*^ had incensed the old privateers- 
men, and stirred the blood of younger seamen, and aroused 
the resentment of all right minded men. The embargo of 
Mr. Jefferson was a restraint Upon their trade, inflicted by 
their own countrymen, that seemed to effectually check their 
efforts to regain something of their former prosperity. Then 
there was a considerable class of men full of enterprise, ac- 
customed to the dangers of the sea — men who had known and 
been instructed by a race of seamen whose actual adventures 
surpassed all the tales of fiction, who were anxious to go out 
under the stars and stripes in defence of "free trade and sail- 
or's rights," and to contest the right of the Red Cross of 
England, unchallenged, to rule the seas. 

In the exigencies of that war it became apparent that 
the force on the northern frontier was to be strengthened. 
The British fleet on Lake Erie was officered and manned by 
seamen who fought under Nelson at Trafalgar; and a force 
was to be selected which was to finish vessels begun, and con- 
struct other vessels to meet in deadly conflict the most chiv- 
alrous veterans of the British navy. In command of the 
flotilla in Newport harbor, was one who was of a daring line.; 
he had been trained in our schools, and was in command of 
those he had known and who had known him from child- 
hood. This force was ordered to ]-«ake Erie. There they 
cut down the forest, threw it ujxui the lake, and manning it, 
went out upon that great inland sea to meet the conquerors 
of the armada of Erance, and the result of the battle of 
the 10th of Septeml)er, 1813, was recorded in those memora- 
ble words now familiar and to be immortal, "We have met 
the enemy and they are ours."' 

Yonder granite shaft marks the grave, but liistory has 
embalmed for immortality the memory of Terry and his 



HISTOEY OF NEWPORT. 51 

Newport comrades, and the valor which conquered on Lake 
Erie. 

After the treaty of peace of 1815, Newport had become 
so exhausted, that little effort was made to regain any- 
thing of its former prosperity until subsequent to 1830, 
when an attempt was made to revive the whaling business, 
and to engage in manufacturing enterprises, and the natural 
attractions of the place began to be better known and more 
highly appreciated as a summer resort. 

In the attempt to subvert the charter government by 
force in 1842, Newport was strongly on the side of the gov- 
ernment, and perhaps it is not too much to say, that had not 
Newport thrown her influence so strongly in favor of the 
government, the result of that contest in the State, upon 
which the success of popular government everywhere might 
have been pivoted, possibly, would have been in doubt. 

In the late Southern rebellion, Newport, true to her his- 
tory, was earnest and prompt and faithful and contin- 
ual in her support of the government, but on an occasion like 
this, it is hardly proper that I should attempt to open the 
smouldering embers, or to remove the ashes from the wasting 
fire. The facts, howeVer, exist, and the history and honor 
of the city is preserved. 

During the last century, wonderful strides have been 
made in the advancement of mechanical science and indus- 
trial art. Watt and Fulton, Stephenson, Morse and Ark- 
wright, have all lived and died within that period, but their 
wonderful inventions survive to ameliorate the conditions of 
human life and to contribute to the civilization and happiness 
of the human race. 

The grandest scene in the centennial exhibition now 
open in Philadelphia ; the most exalted personal achieve- 



52 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

ment, was on that opening day, of a Rhode Ishand mechanic 
standing with his engines, the work of his own genius, which 
were to furnish the power to operate the vast machinery 
there to be put in motion, while a president and emperor 
with hands upon the wheels awaited the direction of Mr. 
Corliss to start those mighty forces which were to move as 
with life into action, the complicated mechanism before him, 
and to put upon exhibition the condition of mechanical art 
in all the States of Christendom. That scene was worthy 
of being represented on canvass, to be placed upon the walls 
of every workshop and hung up in every school room in the 
land. 

Every old house in Newport, every grave-yard, indeed 
every field, almost every foot of ground, is associated with 
some man or event worthy of being consecrated in history. 
By yonder shore the devout Mary Dj^er oft 3n bowed in wor- 
ship, and there moved by an inner consciousness to duty, 
resolved to face opposition and proclaim the gospel of peace 
in Boston to friends from whom she had been exiled. She 
went and was persecuted there, and again and again re- 
turned to her home here to receive another message from the 
teachings of the spirit to go to the Puritan commonwealth 
and there receive a martyr's crown. Here, too, are the 
graves of Clarke, Coddington, Sanford, Coggeshall, Bull, 
Brenton, Easton, and their compatriots who preferred liberty 
in exile among savages, to the intolerance and oppressions of 
their former associates. There is where the Baptists of New- 
port claim to have established the oldest church of their faith 
in America. There, too, is old Trinity, where Berkeley 
used to preach, near by where he wrote his "Alcephron" 
and his "Course of Empire." And yonder is the Old Stone 
Mill, the enigma to antiquarians. Here, too, was once the' 
home of DeCourcy,^! Sir Charles Wager,32 and Arthur 



HISTOEY OF NEWPORT. 68 

Brown, Dr. Waterhouse,^^ Sir Brenton Halliburton, Admiral 
Sir Jalileel Brenton, and his brother, Edward Pelham Bren- 
ton, the philanthropists and the historians of the British 
navy. Here, too, lived that rude, daring character, known 
in history as James Murray, otherwise Lillibridge,^* who 
towards the close of the last century acted so conspicuous 
a part in the events which transpired in Hindoostan. 

Here, too, in the house, now the Children's Home, was 
born William Ellery Channing,^^ whose philosophy in religion 
was the refrain of the harsh theology of the Puritans, and 
which was to react upon the teachings of the Puritans until 
there is danger that the seed which they sowed to the wind 
may yet be gatJiered in the whirlwind. We, too, have the 
Redwood Library, the headquarters of Washington, Rocham- 
beau, Lafayette and Prescott, the house of Perry and the 
place where the Decatur^*^ family lived; but the mind wearies 
of these details. 

Washington wrote of the excellence of our climate ; 
Volney, the infidel Frenchman, admired its salubrit}' ; Chas- 
telleaux in his enthusiasm desired to be buried in our soil, 
that the roar of our ocean might perpetually sing a requiem 
over his grave. Count de Segar and Lausanne and St. John, 
were enchanted with the revolutionary society of Newport, 
a!5 was Blanchard and DuxPonts ; and our lovely Island Home 
dearer, a thousand times dearer to those of us who stand 
here among ancestral graves than to others, annually receives 
a tribute to its attractions from thousands of the opulent and 
refined made up of those from every Christian land. 
Channing thanked God that this beautiful island was the 
place of his birth. I thank God that the ancestors of my 
children stood by the cradle of the Rhode Island colony, 
. assisted in nurturing it into a hardy manhood, and that this 
I noianfc m micipality holds th3ir ashes entombed in its bosom. 



54 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

To-day our nation begins a new era in its liistory, with 
ampler means at its control to surpass in the future all of the 
achievements of the past, for we have vast fields of our 
country yet unsubdued and uncultivated. The commerce of 
the world is open to our enterprises, and we are at full lib- 
erty to gather the harvest from our industry in every land ; 
free education is within the reach of all, and there is a pulpit 
in every neighborhood from which all are instructed in their 
duties to man and to God. 

True, there are immoralities and corruptions practiced 
over the land. But so it has been since our first parents parted 
in sorrow from the Eden of their rest ; virtue has since then 
been warring with vice, and men have been gathering and 
consuming that for which they have not toiled. But in no age 
of tlie world has the popular conscience been quicker to de- 
tect or resent crime or wrong than in that age in which a 
benevolent Providence has cast our fortunes. 

One hundred years of our national existence is completed 
to-day. Three millions of people have been increased to 
forty-five millions ; thirteen colonies have become thirty-eight 
sovereign and independent States. At the beginning of the 
century the colonies, in poverty and distress, were engaged 
in a war for existence. They were contending with the 
most powerful empire on earth. Now we are at peace and in 
the enjoyment of a larger measure of lil)erty, of prosperity, 
and happiness than is vouchsafed to any other people on 
earth. Tlie balh)t is the moter which kei'psin operation the 
whole machinery of our government ; the intelligence, integ- 
rity, industry and enterprise of our population is the bul- 
wark which the Republic has" reared in defence of its insti- 
tutions of government. Our nation's flag is respected on 
every sea, and our country is the hope of the oppressed of 
every land. True, slavery revolted against the government 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 55 

and struck the country, but the blow recoiled and slavery 
was killed. Now let us heal the wound that war has made, 
stretch out our arms to bridge the chasm, and strike hands 
with our repentant, offending brothers ; bind them anew 
in the bonds of union, and engage them in the divine mis- 
sion of perpetuating our republic, and of realizing the grand 
idea of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are 
free and equal ; we with them will enlighten the ignorant, 
encourage the weak, elevate the down trodden, stimulate the 
enterprise of all, and embark our country upon the new cen- 
tury in its high and holy mission of raising man everywhere 
to a higher and better condition, nearer, and yet nearer 
fitted for the Paradise of celestial rest. 

The prosperity and growth of every place depends upon 
the industry, energy, enter]; rise, intelligence, economy and 
integrity of the people who inhabit it. What Newport 
needs in entering upon another century is men — men in- 
spired by a genius that will evoke and utilize all of the 
forces of our population to develop the best results to them- 
selves and to the city of which these forces are capable. 
We should never be unmindful that there is a useful field of 
employment open to every man and woman in the land ; no 
person of a sound body and a sound mind has the moral right 
to live like the sloth, and without exertion, to live only 
to eat, drink, sleep and die. If all of the resources of our 
people could be called out and economized in promoting the 
growth of the city, the city would not only surpass all of 
its ancient achievements, but would outstrip in its growth 
and advancement all of its contemporaries. 

Our shores dre accessible to the commerce of every land, 
every industrial art is within our grasp, capital is the saving 
of labor, and labor is open to all, so that capital is within the 



56 HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 

reacli of all. The unemployed and wasted forces, including 
the wastes incident to useless and vicious habits, and of over- 
stocked trades, if skillfully directed and economically em- 
ployed, would in a few years build a city. 

A word in reference to the day we celebrate. This is the 
nation's Sabbath — the day in our calendar consecrated by 
the grandest declaration of human rights recorded in the his- 
tory of the human race. Half a century from the day when 
this declaration was promulgated, Adams and Jefferson, its 
framers and defenders, died. Six years later, James Monroe, 
who had held the highest office in the gift of the people, died 
on the anniversary of the nation's birthday. In the late civil 
war the rebel hosts were turned back from Gettysburg, and 
the rel)el fortress at Vicksburg surrendered on the 4th of 
July, and then the fortunes of the rebellion began to ebb, 
and by these deeds this day was again consecrated to obser- 
vance. Were these coincidences in time of the happening of 
events the results of chance ? Is there not something in 
them to stimulate "in us the inquiry whether they were 
not designed hy a superintending Providence to induce us to 
perform our duty, and arouse in us a sense of responsibility 
to our country? 

All that we have of protection of persons and property 
we hold from the Stat(\ The State can demand for its de- 
fence to the last penny of our fortunes, and then take our 
persons to fight its battles. I have said enough to-day to re- 
call to 3^oiir minds the sufferings, the trials, and the sacrifices 
which have been made for the blessings Avhich we enjoy. I 
would to God that I had the power to infuse into the mind 
of every freeman in the land a true sense of the responsibil 
ity upon us all to preserve for ourselves and posterity in 
their utmost purity, the institutions of government which 
have come down to us. 



^m-' 



jmi^^it^mm 



SIR CHARLES WAGER. 



Toward the close of the sixteenth and in the beginning of 
the seventeenth century, Newport had become a place of 
considerable commercial importance. It was at this time 
that ship captains, who sailed out of Newport, were among 
the more important personages in the colony, and used to 
wear cocked hats, "kneed-breeches," and ruffled shirts. At 
that period, Capt. John Hull was conspicuous among these 
captains. He had taken on board his ship an apprentice boy 
by the name of Charles Wager. This boy remained with 
Captain Hull until he became Hull's chief mate. The good 
captain was a Quaker, and a good story is told of Hull and 
his pi'otege which illustrates the trials to which Friends have 
at some times been subjected, and how unexpected a change 
took place in the fortunes of young Wager. Hull's ship 
had left England, and witli a leading breeze was pressing for 
her American home, when one of those French corsairs^ not 
unfrequently encountered at that time, half privateer and half 
pirate, bore up across Hull's track and backed topsails to 
await the approach of the Quaker craft. The latter was 
full manned, as well as was his would-be adversary. The 
situation was at once taken in by all on board. But what 
was to be done ? The good captain had to stand by the tes- 
timonies of his faith. Young Wager answered this question. 
He told the captain that he had better go below. The cap- 
tain took this advice and left the mate in command. The 
mate spread every inch of canvass he could open to the 
breeze, and directed the good ship, as he supposed, for the 
broadside of his adversary. But the captain, though he had 



60 Sm CHARLES WAGER. 

retired from the command and had withdrawn from duty, 
continued to see what was passing, and was heard by the 
mate to say: "Charles, if thee is determined to run that ves- 
sel down, thee had better luff a little." Charles took his 
captain's advice, and in a moment more Captain Hull's 
staunch ship crushed in the side of the corsair. Then came 
one of those terrible hand to hand sea fights that distin- 
guished that time. The contest was for the possession of 
Hull's ship, for the other was disabled, and the contest was 
for life and death. Men were cut to pieces or were thrown 
into the sea, or were otherwise dispatched as ([uickly as pos- 
sible. Of this struggle the good Quaker was an active ob- 
server. He noticed that a rope loosely hanging overboard 
was suddenly drawn taut ; his quick eye divined the cause. 
He caught his hatchet, and in an instant was in the waist of 
his ship by the rail. A stalwart foe was using the rope to 
board the Quaker vessel ; a well aimed blow of the hatchet 
parted the line, and the Quaker captain calmly remarked, 
"friend, if thee wants that line thee can have it." The mate 
saved the ship ; she went on her voyage, and the story of 
the gallant conduct of the mate eventually reached the Brit- 
ish Admiralty, into whose service he was taken. This gal- 
lant officer finally became Sir Charles Wager, first lord of the 
British Admiralty. Upon a lull promoted by him in the 
British parliament in 1740, to promote the efficiency of the 
British navy, Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, made 
one of his most effective speeches. 

The name of Wager, preserved in some of our Narragan- 
settand Conanicut families descended from Capt. John Hull, 
is derived from the apprentice of their ancestor. 

In my childhood I attended school, kept in a house in 
which a descendant of Captain John Hull resided ; an elderly 
gentleman and his wife made up the family ; they were poor 
then, but liad seen better days. The engraved likeness of 
Sir Charles Wager, highly prized and well cared for by its 
possessor, hung upon the wall above the fireplace, and though 
more than forty-five years have elapsed since I saw it, I re- 



Sm CHARLES WAGER. 61 

member how it looked, and the interest with which old Mr. 
Robert Hull told the story of the life of the apprentice to 
his ancestor. 

Sir Charles Wager was born October 26, 1666. June 
7th, 1692, was appointed captain of the Razee, fire ship, and 
from her he was soon removed to the Samuel and Henry, 44. 
In 1696 he had command of the Woolwich, a 54, employed 
in the channel fleet. Soon after the accession of Queen 
Ann, he took command of the Hampton-Court, of 70 guns, 
and was with Lake at the taking of Majorca. Upon his re- 
turn from the Mediterranean, he was dispatched in 1707 with 
a squadron of nine ships of the line to the West Indies, hav- 
ing under his convoy a valuable fleet of merchantmen. Here 
he received information that the French Admiral Du Casse 
had put to sea for the purpose of protecting some Spanish 
galleons. On the 28th of May, 1708, he descried the ene- 
my's fleet, comprised of 17 sail, galleons and ships of war, 
standing towards Carthagena ; he took the largest two of the 
enemy's ships. He shortly afterwards, by a vessel from Eng- 
land, received a commission as rear admiral of the blue, and 
on the 2d of December, 1708, was made rear admiral of the 
white. He remained in the West Indies until 1709, where 
his fleet succeeded in capturing many prizes. On his return 
to England he was made rear admiral of the red, and on the 
8th of December, of that year, he received the order of 
Knighthood. After the accession of George I, he was ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, and at 
about the same time comptroller in the navy, and on the 
16th of June, 1716, he-was made vice admiral of the blue, 
and on the first of the ensuing February, was made vice ad- 
miral of the white, and on the 15th of March, vice admiral 
of the red, and in 1718 was appointed lord of the admiralty, 
when he resigned the comptroUership of the na.\y. He per- 
formed many active services at sea, and in June, 1731, was 
made admiral of the blue, when he took command of a large 
armament, and was charged with the duty of executing the 
treaty of Venice. Having performed this duty he returned 
to England. 



62 SIR CHARLES WAGEE. 

June 21st, 1733, Sir Charles Wager was made first lord 
of the admiralty ; in the January following he was made ad- 
miral of the white, and on the 19th of March, 1741, resigned 
his place at the admiralty board. He was then appointed 
treasurer of the navy, which place he held up to the time of 
his death. May 24th, 1743. He was buried in Westminster 
Abbey, where a splendid monument was erected to his 
memory. 

Tristam Hull was an inhabitant, and liable to bear arms 
in the town of Yarmouth, in Plymouth colony, in 1643, and 
purchased from the Indians a tract of land for the town of 
Barnstable, July 19th, 1G44. Hull was a master mariner. 
In 1657, an old man in Boston by the name of Nicholas Up- 
sall, who was a member of the Boston church, had disap- 
proved of the treatment of the then recently arrived Qua- 
kers ; indeed, Upsall was counted a Quaker, for on the 14th 
of the previous October, he had been found guilty of this 
heres}^ and had been sentenced to a fine of £20 and to ban- 
ishment. Captain Hull being in Boston, took Upsall with 
him to Sandwich. Plymouth colony not being any more 
reconciled to the Quaker than Massachusetts, sentenced 
Upsall "to lie carried out of the government by Tristram 
Hull, who had brought him." 

Tristram Hull had two sons — Joseph, born in June, 1652, 
John, born in March, 1664. These sons were both Quakers, 
and both came to and settled in Rhode Island. Joseph set- 
tled in Kingstown. He had a son Tristram who married 
Elizabeth Dyer, a grand-daughter of Mary Dyer, who was 
executed in Boston. John Hull married Alice Teddeman in 
1684, and settled at Newport in 1687, out of which port he 
sailed for many years, and finally, he purchased and went to 
live upon a farm in the north part of Jamestown, wliere he 
died. 

After Captain Hull retired to his farm, a British fleet, 
probably upon its return from a West India expedition, vis- 
ited the harbor of Newport. Captain Hull, upon this occa- 
sion, called at the coffee house to pay his respects to his 



SIR CHARLES WAGER. 63 

former 'protege. He met a lieutenant, and in the vocabulary 
of the captain's sect, he asked the lieutenant, "where is 
Charles ?" This manner of speech the junior officer regarded 
as an insult to his admiral. The admiral being at once ap- 
prised of the affair, stepped out and rebuked his subordinate 
by saying to him, "Captain Hull is my honored master." 

Several letters recognizing the relations which existed 
between Sir Charles Wager and Captain Hull, are yet 
extant. 

Admiral Goodson, said to have been the grandfather of 
Sir Charles Wager, was an officer of the British navy in the 
time of the commonwealth, but for having expressed some 
opinion in favor of the restoration of the Stuarts to the 
throne, was retired from office. At the restoration of Charles 
II, he was overlooked, and he finally came to America. His 
descendants intermarried with some of the first families in 
Newport. There is a tradition that he was buried in the 
Hull burying ground at the north end of Conanicut. 

Admiral Goodson commanded the rear admiral's squad- 
ron of eleven ships, in the great naval battle with the 
Dutch, fought on the 2d and 3d of June, 1653, in which the 
Dutch were defeated, and which virtually ended that war. 
The next year, 1654, Admiral Goodson commanded the 
fleet under Penn, at the conquest of Jamaica. When they 
returned to England, Penn was thrown into the Tower of 
London, and Goodson was rewarded by the Council of State 
with a large gratuity. On the death of Cromwell in 1659, 
Admiral Goodson and his son-in-law, the father of Sir Charles 
Wager, "dreading a renewal of civil bloodshed," implored 
Monk to listen to terms of accommodation with the com- 
mittee of safety, composed of army officers. This accom- 
modation resulted in the restoration of the Stuarts, and the 
retirement of Goodson. Wager, his son-in-law, remained in 
the navy, and died in 1665. Goodson was superseded, it is 
said, on account of "conformity." 

The Wagers were connected with, or allied to, the family 
of Sir Thomas Teddeman, into which family captain John 



64 SIR CHAKLES WAGER. 

Hull married. It would be interesting to know if Charles 
Wager, the orpliaii grandson of Admiral (loodson, was 
brought to Newport l)y Admiral (roodson, or through the in- 
fluence of the Teddenuins he was put an apprentice to 
Captain Hull, in England. One account says that Wager 
came to Newport when an infant, and another account says 
that he came when a youtli. It is quite certain that the 
character of this remarkable man was moulded and formed 
in Newport. 

In 1775, a party from the British fleet, under connnanclof 
Captain Wallace, went to Conanicut, killed one John Mar- 
tin, and burned several dwelling houses, among which was 
the dwelling of Wager Hull, which contained most of the 
''old papers'' belonging to the Hull family. Had these 
papers been preserved, no doubt l)ut that they would have 
reflected light upon the lives of Admiral (ioodson and Sir 
Charles Wager. 



JAMES LILLIBRIDGE. 



This extraordinary person is said to have been horn in 
Exeter, Rhode Ishand, about the year 1765, but no men- 
tion of his birth appears upon the records of Exeter, or of 
his mother having resided in that town. They resided in 
Newpo.t before 1774. He was the natural child of a Miss 
Mowrey. He was known by the name of his reputed father 
James Lillibridge. 

He lived on the Long Wharf in Newport, with his mother 
and sisters, in the house now known as "the Bohanna 
house." It is said that his mother and sisters were disrepu- 
table persons, and that in consequence of a family quarrel, he 
left home and went to sea. Lillibridge changed his sur- 
name to that of Murray, and was afterwards known as James 
Murray. He was bound as an apprenticeto some mechanical 
trade before going to sea. After following the seas for a 
time he arrived at Tranquebar, on the coast of Coromandel, 
about 1790, and sometime in that year, having heard that cer- 
tain Frenchmen, who had entered the service of the Indian 
princes, had arisen rapidly in rank and fortune, he deter- 
mined to hazard the evasion of the vigilance of the British 
officers, and to take service under some one of the Mahratta 
chiefs. He reached the province and entered the service of 
Holkar, one of the most formidable of these chiefs. Instead 
of uniting against the common enemy, these petty sovereigns 
for a half century had been engaged in an intestine warfare. 
In the hazardous enterprises of these inglorious wars, Mur- 
ray "became conspicuous for his invincible courage and un- 
daunted presence of mind, as well as for his personal prow- 
9 



QQ JAMES LILLIBRIDGE. 



ess." He remained in tlie Mahratta service for fifteen years, 
during which he was actively engaged in every species of 
peril and hardship known to that terrible warfare, from Cape 
Cormorin to the Ijorders of Persia. 

An act of humanity finally brought him to the notice of 
the British government in India, and alienated him from the 
prince whom he had so faithfully ser\ed. A number of 
British officers had been taken prisoners, by him, to Hol- 
kar, and by Holkar had ]jcen ordered to Ije instantly 
put to the sword. At the imminent risk of his own 
life, Murray interposed to save the lives of these 
officers. This act relaxed his hold upon Holkar, and dis- 
gusted Murray with the service of his l)arl)ar()us master; so 
Murray contrived to get possession of a considerable district 
of country which he subjected to his own government. So 
desperate was his fortune at one time, that his whole force 
was reduced to eight badly armed men, but from this depres- 
sion he finally succeeded in firndy establishing himself in his 
new sovereignty. When the war broke out between the 
British government and Scindia, in which Holkar embraced 
the cause of the latter, Murray surrendered his sovereignty 
and proclaimed the supremacy of the British government in 
his principality, and at the head of seven thousand native 
cavalry he entered the service of the British government under 
Lord Lake. It is said that the British general received him 
with the greatest respect, and that the fullest confidence was 
reposed in him. Ht> retained tlu^ independent command 
which h(! l)roughtt() tlie British service, and was actively em- 
ployed in the juost daring and dangerous enterprises of that 
terrible war. 

At the siege of I)huntpore, wherc^ the Britisli army lost 
nearly ten thousand men in four successive attempts to storm 
the place, Murray was in continual action, and earned the 
title of l)eing "the best partisan officer in India." At this 
time Holkar was in command of an immense body of Indian 
cavalry on the flank of the English army, and Murray had 
the opportunity of meeting his old chieftain where they could 



JAMES LILLIBRIDGE. 67 

settle their old quarrel, an opportunity of which it is but fair 
to suppose was fully availed of by the partisan warrior. 

Murray had acquired a large fortune, and at the conclu- 
sion of the war his rank was reduced and he was retired 
from the army on half pay. Upon this l)eing done he deter- 
mined to return to his native country and "live a life of 
luxury and tranquility." 

The officers of the army to whose country he had ren- 
dered such distinguished services while the war was going 
on, treated him with the greatest consideration, but upon the 
restoration of peace they treated him with comparative in- 
difference ; this, no doubt, assisted him to form his resolution 
to return to his own country. He remitted his funds to Cal- 
cutta, and shortly after repaired thither, determined to take 
passage from thence to the United States. This was in 1806. 
He was then yet in the prime of life, and might well hope for 
distinction in his own country. 

A few days before the time fixed for his embarkation he 
gave a splendid entertainment to his acquaintances in Cal- 
cutta. After dinner, when elated with wine, he undertook 
the entertainment of his guests by riding his Arabian charger, 
which had carried him in the war, over the dining table. The 
horse's foot became entangled in the carpet, and threw his 
rider. Murray received internal injuries, which induced 
mortification, and he died in a few days. He was said to 
have been the best horseman in India, and unrivalled in the 
use of the broad sword. He is described as having been in 
ordinary life, a mild and amiable man, but when aroused into 
anger he became ferocious and ungovernable. He was of 
middling height, pleasing expression of countenance, and 
had great bodily strength and agility. He is said to have 
been attacked upon one occasion by seven Mahratta horse- 
men, of whom he killed three, and then effected his escape 
from the other four. "Many were his wild and romantic 
advei;tures, and hair breadth escapes, but their history is but 
imperfectly known, for he was modest and not given to boast- 
ing of his own exploits. Though he had been from his home 



JAIVIES LILLIBRIDGE. 



since his boyhood, he retained a wonderful attachment for 
his native country, and he sometimes loaned considerable 
sums of money to persons upon no other assurance than that 
they were Americans." After his death a portion of his for- 
tune, some $20,000 it is said, was transmitted to his mother 
and sisters at Newport, upon the receipt of which they 
changed their residence, and became candidates for respec- 
tability, but they afterwards returned to Newport. 

Such is a brief outline of a man who, without the advan- 
tages of an education, went out into the world in search of 
adventures and to seek his fortune. He fought nabobs, 
rajahs, natives of the country, and British soldiers on the 
opposite side of the globe. The history of India for twenty 
years is the record of his achievements and of his wonderful 
daring. He not only fought Scindia, but the forces of the 
nabobs of Arcot, of Oudre and Surat, and under the direc- 
tion of Major General Arthur Wellesly, afterwards Duke of 
Wellington, and Lord Lake, he took Indore and Malwa, and 
with equal valor he fought on the plains, in the mountain 
passes, and among the jungles of Hindoostan, either under 
the cross of St. George, or in defence of the claims of some 
native master. The most marked tribute of his power in the 
field is the inference to be drawn from an article in the treaty 
finally entered into between the governor general of India 
and Scindia, that the latter should never thereafter take an 
American into his service or permit one to enter his domin- 
ions 



Appendix. 



(a.) The first settlers of Newport found the present site of the city a tliickly 
wooded swamp. It is said that tall forest trees were then growing from the bot- 
•toni to the summit of the hill. That these were first cut away, until they came 
down to low, marshy ground, made impenetrable by a dense underbrush. Nich- 
olas Easton, William Brenton, and Thomas Hazard are said to have contracted 
with three Indians to clear up the underbrush for a coat ; the large brass but- 
tons on which were taken oflf, strung together, and were then used as a necklace 
or ornament by one of the Indians. The Indians fired the underbrush, and that 
cleared the low land on the margin of the harbor. Much sand and gravel, it is 
said, was filled in upon the low ground. Mr. Jaffrey, 'William Dyer, and John 
Clarke were the committee of the proprietors to lay out the town lots. Thames 
street was first laid out one mile in length. The first lots were laid off on the 
north side of what is now Washington Square. To the lots on the east side of 
Thames street was assigned the space opposite on the west between the street 
and the water. The first landing place was at a point of land then i)rojecting 
into the water north of the present site of the Long Wharf. At the time of the 
firstsettling of Newport, Brenton's Neck and Goat Island are said to have been 
covered with large forest trees. 

The persons who signed tlic original compact for settling Newport, were Wil- 
liam Coddington, Nicholas Eastun, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, John 
Clarke, Jeremiah Clarkt-, Thomas Hazard and William Dyer. 

The following persons were admitted inhabitants soon after, probably in 
10.39, viz : 

Samuel Hutchinson, Richard Awards, Edward Wilcox, John Briggs, William 
Writhington, Samuel Gorton, John Wickes, Ralph Earle, William Cowlie. Jef- 
frey Champlin, Richard Sarlc, Thomas Spicer, Robert Potter, Nathaniel Potter, 
William Needliam, Sampson Shatton, Adam Mott, John Mott, Robert Jeffreys, 
Thomas Hill, James Tarr, John Roome, Robert Gilham, Mathew Sntlicrland, 
William Baker, Anthony Paine, William Richardson, Thomas Clarke, .John 
Johnson, William Hall. George Gardiner, (ieorge Parker, Erasmus Bullock, 
George Cleet, Nicholas Browne, Richard Borden, Richard Maxon, John Sloff. 
Thomas Beeder, John Trijip, Osmond Doutch, John .Marsnall, Robert Stanton, 
Joseph Clarke, Robt-rt Carr, (ieorge Layton John Arnold, William Havens, 
Thomas Layton, Edward Poole, Nicholas Davis, John Moore, George Potter, 
William Quick. 



APPENDIX. 



ANN HUTCHINSOX. 

(1.) Ajin Hutchinson removed to East Chester, in the colony of New York, 
where after much opposition from the Indians she succeeded in building a frame 
house. But she had not dwelt there long when the Indians had a quarrel with 
some Dutch people that dwelt near her, but the dint of the rage of the Indians 
fell upon tills gentlewoman whom they slew, with all of her family, to the num- 
ber of sixteen, (embracing one or more of the children of John Sanford, of Ports- 
mouth,) and left but one little girl, a relative of the family, whom the Indians 
carried into captivity. She was afterwards redeemed and married a man by the 
name of Cole, in North Kingstown, where she lived to a considerable age. See 
Niles' French and Indian Wars, p. 201. Savage (Jen. Die. v. 4, Tit. John Sanford. 

WrLLI.A.M HUTCHINSON'. 

(2.) William Hutchinson died in Portsmouth in 1642, aged 56 years. He was the 
husband of the celebrated Ann Hutchinson. Edward Hutchinson and Edward 
Hutchinson, Jr., returned to Massachusetts and the latter was killed at Brook- 
field, in I'hilip's war, in 16V.5. Edward was the ancestor of the celebrated tory 
Governor Hutchinson. Governor Hutchinson and lieutenant Governor Oliver 
married two daughters of William Sanford of Newport. The Hutchinson farm in 
Jamestown, with the farm owned by the late Andrew Robeson in Tiverton, and 
other Hutchinson lands, were confiscalcd. 

WILLI A. M AS PIN WALL. 

(3.) William Aspinwall, after going to New Haven, returned to Massachusetts' 
and was tliere a clerk of the court. He died in Boston. He was one of the ear- 
liest members of the Boston church and one of its deacons. 

WILLI A. M I>YF.K. 

(4.) William Dyer, one of the first settlers, was the husband of Mary Dyer, 
who was hung on Boston Common. Ho was the leader of the anti-Coddington 
party, and went to England at his own expense to aid in procuring the revocation 
of Coddington's commission as judge for life, and returned the bearer of a letter 
from the Council of State, revoking the commission. He was Attorney General of 
the Colony in 1C50, and was the first person who filled that oflice. He had as- 
signed to him a tract of land adjoining the harbor between Coddington's Point 
and Easton's Point. He died in Newjiort and left descendants. 

.lOHN SANFORD. 

yr>.) Jolm Sanford was a nicuiber of the Boston chuich in lt;;!l, was admitted a 
freeman April yd, 1(132, and tlie same year was appointed Cannoneer at the 
port. He had a son John who was baptized June 24th, 1G.32 ; Samuel, June 22d, 
1G34. In December, 1637, he was disarmed as a su])porter of Wheelwright and came 
to and was one of the founders of thO Colony at Rhode Island. He resided at Ports- 
mouth and was successively Treasurer, Seci-elary, Assistant and President of the 
Colony. He had two sons, John and Samuel, and several daughters. One or 
more of his children W(Me with Mrs. Hutchinson, and were laken by the Indians 
when they killed her. His son John married April 17th, 1C63, Mary, the daugh- 
ter of Samuel Gorton, and widow of Peter Greene. They had a daughter Ellphal 
Feb. 20, KIGG ; John, June 18th, 1070, and Samuel, Oct. .''ith, 1677. By a previous mar- 
riage with Elizabet h Sjiatcliiu-st he had three daughters. Samuel, son of the first 
John, came to Portsmoutli .and married Sarah Waddell in October, 1662. They 
also had a son .lohn. 

SAMUEL WILHOUK. 

(6.) Samuel Wilbour married the daughter of John Porter, and afterwards 
went to Little Compton and died there. He was the ancestor of the Wilbour fam- 
ily in that town. 



APIPENDIX. 



THOMAS SAVAGE. 

(7.) Thomas Savage, the son-in-law of Ann Hutchinson, returned to Boston, 
as did William Baulston. (10. i 

RICHARD CARDER. 

(8.) Richard Carder removed to Warwick, but fled from there to Newport 
for protection from the Indians during Philip's war. He died in Newport in 1G7C, 
but his family returned to W/arwiok. 

JOHN POSTER AND RICHARD HOLDKN. 

1,9.) John Porter and Randall Holdeu (18) also removed to Warwick and died 
there. 

WILLIAM FREEBORN. 

(11.) William Freeborn, one of the lirst settlers, died at Portsmouth, June 3d, 
1670, aged eighty years. He was the founder of "the Freeborn family" on the 
island of Rhode Island. 

HENRY BULL. 

(12.) Henry Bull was one of the first settlers of Newport. He was a native of 
Wales, and was the fii-st sergeant of the colony. He was one of the assistants, 
a deputy from Newport, and Governor of the colony. Hebuiltthestonehou.se 
which is yet standing on the east side of Spring street, and owned a considerable 
tract of land in that neighborhood, some of which remains in the hands of his 
lineal descendants. He was the last survivor of the original colonists and died 
Feb. '22d, IfiOl, at the age of 84 years. He was buried in the Coddinglon burying- 
ground. ' 

.lOHN WALKER. 

(13.) John Walker was admitted a freeman of Massachusetts, May 14th, l(i.34. 
He had been a member of the church at Koxbury, but, says Savage, he removed 
to Boston to find a wider sympathy for his heresy, where he was disarmed with 
the major part of his feilow-worshiiipers, in November, 1G37 : and soon after he 
removed to Rhode Island. He joined the Newport colony, March 12th, 1040, and 
his name last appears on the roll of freemen for Newport, March 16th, 1C41. 

William Brenton, Nicholas Easton and Richard Carder were not among the 
first comers at Portsmouth, but the two former, with Jeremiah Clarke and Thomas 
Hazard, signed the compact to settle Newport. 

.JOHN CLARKE. 

(14.) John Clarke is said to have been a native of Bedfordshire, England. He 
was a physician and practiced in London before he lanie to America. He settled 
in Boston and there practiced his profession, j)roteste<l against the censure of 
Wheelwright, was disarmed, and came to Rhode Island, and was one of the found- 
ers there. Dr. Clarke was a man of learning, anil after he came to Newport con- 
ducted public worship before Mr. Eontliallcamc, but after the arrival of I.cnthall 
he (Lent hall) officiated as preacher at Newport while he remained here. f^r.C. was 
the first educated physician who practiced in Rhode Island. In 104.'? or 44 he, with 
others, formed a church upon the faith and order of the Baptists, in wliich lie 
preached, and at I lie same time he jnacticed as a jihysician. He continued to be 
pastorof the church until he was sent to England as the agent of O,") jiersons from 
Newport, and 41 persons from Portsmouth, to procure the revocation of Coddinjf- 
ton's commission. He became the agent of the colony, and remained abroad 
twelve years. Upon his petition the charter of lOO.! was granted. A.s much of the 
petition of Dr. Clarke is incorporated into the charter, it may be inferre<l that 
he prepared that document which will always stand a monument to his liberal- 
ity, ability and address. While abroad in the service of the colony, he was under 



vi. APPENDIX. 

the necessity of laboring there for his own support, and expended much of his 
private fortune in promoting tlie interest of the colony. He was reduced to the 
necessity of mortgaging his liouse and lot in Newport to Richard Dean of Lon- 
don, for £140 sterling. In September, 1WJ6, the colony assumed the payment 
of this mortgage, and probably paid it about 1672, the intervening time being 
employed in endeavoring to raise the money, with which to discharge tlie mort- 
gage. The town of Warwick beliaved with great illiberality in this matter. Dr. 
Clarke returned to Newport in 1664, and was immediately elected a deputy from 
Newport. In 1669 he was elected Deputy Governor. He was appointed to go to 
England again in 1671, in reference to the boundary between Rhode Island and 
Connecticut. He died in 1676 in Newport, aged 66 years, and was buried in his 
own lot on the west side of Tanner street. By his will he left his estate consist- 
ing of "the Charity farms" in Middletown, for the support of the jjoor, and for 
bringing up children to learning. He was thrice married, but died without 
issue. 

.JOHN COGUKSH.\LL. 

(15.) Jolin Coggeshall was often elected to the General Court of Massachu- 
setts, from which he was expelled. He was one of the first settlers of Newport. 
He had assigned to him a large tract of land bordering on the sea, east of what 
is now known as Almy's Pond. He was a man of good abilities. He died in 
1647 at the age of 56, and was buried in "the Coggeshall burying ground," on the 
west side of Coggeshall .\venue. He left numerous descendants. 



(16.) Pliiliji Sherman remained at Portsmouth, where he died in 1676. He was 
recorder of the colony, and his descendants remaining in Rhode Island are more 
numerous than of any other of "the first (>oiners." 

WIl.LIA.M CODDINOTON. 

(17.) William Coddington was appointed one of the assistants in the Massa- 
chusetts colony before he emigrated to tliis country. He came from Lincolnshire. 
He was a fellow passenger from England with Governor John Winthrop, on 
board of the Arabella. Tliey arrived at Salem, June 12th, 1()30. He was several 
times chosen an assistant in Massachusetts, but was left out of tlic magistracy 
upon the defeat of Governor Vane in 1637. But the freemen of Boston chose him 
and Vane the next day to be tleputies to their General Court. Coddington ex- 
pressed his disi)leasure in losing his oflice by sitting with the deacons at public 
\v(jrsliip, instead of with llie magistrates, and on a fast day he went to Mount 
WoUaston to liear Mr. Whe(d\vright. In opposition to Gov. Winthro]) he de- 
fended Mrs. Hutchinson in her trial, and oi)posed the proceedings of llie court 
again.st Wlieelwright. Hi,s exertions were unavailing, and he relinquished a 
prosperous business as a nuirehant in Boston, and* his large property and Im- 
provements in Braintree, and removed to Rhode Island, A])ril 261h, 1638. He went 
to Englaiul in 1651, and procured a commission as Governor for life. He died in 
.\ew])orl in 1678, aged 78 years. His grandson was Governor of tlie Rhode Island 
colony in 1738. Governor Coddington's estate in Newport was bounded by Thames, 
.Marlborough, Farewell and North Baj)tisti streets. His house stood where the 
house of Samuel Sterne now stands, on the north side of Marlborough street, op- 
posite Duke street. 

.NICHOLAS KASTON. 

(19.) Nicholas Easton was by trade a tanner. He came from Wales, and ar- 
rived in New England May 14th 1634 and went to Ipswitai. Was in Newbury in 1635 
with his wife and son John. In 1636 he was the architect of a house built by the 
colony at Ni'wbury called the Bound H»)use. In 1637, Nov. 20th, he was disarmed. 
March 12th, 1637-8, he had obtained license to remove his family from Jlassachu- 
setts, and the General Court having received information that he only intended 



to withdraw for a season, the court ordered that he might depart with his 
family before the next court, and if lie did not, to appear at that court and 
abide tlie further order of tlie court tlierein. June 8tli, 1638, tlie (Jcneral Court 
ordered tliat the majjistrates of Ipswich shall have power to discharfie Mr. 
Easton from buihliufj at Winnacunnet, and if ho did not take warning to dear 
tlie place of him He came to Xewi:)ort with his two sons, John and Peter. He 
built the first frame house there, on a lot of land adjoining the northwest cor- 
ner of the Friends' Meeting House lot on Farewell street. 

WILLIAM HRENTON. 

(20.) William Brenton came to America as a surveyor, bearing llie (Miniiiiis- 
sion of Charles I. to survey the crown lands in Anierii-a under a contract that lu- 
was to have a .share of the lands surveyed. He settled in Boston in IH.'U. As a nicui- 
ber of the General Court he opposed the censuring of Wheelwright and Hutchin- 
son. Mr. Brenton was one of the early settlers of Newport. He had a town hit 
assigned to him extending back from thir harbor to Spring street, bounded nortli 
on Mary street, and extending south to what is now Cotton's Court, with the entire 
neck including the site of Fort A<laius and the Rocky Farm. He owned 10,00(1 
aci-es of land in Jsew Hampshire, in what is now Litchfield, He built a house 150 
feet square in Brenton's neck, where the H. T. Battey house now stands. He 
owned, also, an estate in Taunton, He died between the 20tli of August and l.Jth 
of November. 1674, He was Governor of the colony and held other important 
offices. At his decea.se he left three sons— Jahleel, William and Ebenezer, and 
several daughters. 

Jahleel manned a schooner when lie was hut In\ cnty-one yeais of age. and 
went to the rescue of the inhabitants of Piovldcnce at the time tlie town was 
burned by the Indians in 1676, He was afterwards collector of the customs at 
Boston, but eventually returned to Newport where he died without issue in 1732, 
aged 77 years, and was buried at what is now Fort Adams. .Jahleel Brenton 
divised his estates in Newport to his nephew, Jahleel. William Brenton re- 
moved to Bristol, where he died, and was buried in his farm at I'aupausquash. 
He left two sons, Jahleel and Benjamin, Benjamin Brenton died at the age of 
93 and was buried on his farm in South Kingstown. Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton 
and ('apt. Edward Pelham of the British Navy, and Sir Brenton Halliburton, all 
natives of Newport, were the descendants of Jahleel Brenton, The Brenton 
house on the east side of Thames street was built about 1720. 



Al'PENDIX. 



UR. BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 

(21.) Dr. Benjamin Franklin had three brothers who resided iu Newport, John, 
James, witli whom the Doctor learned the printer's trade, and Peter. 

James Franklin was Liorn in Hoston in 1G99, and died in Newport in 1734, aged 
.36 years. In ITl'J he i)ublished the Huston Gazette. In 1721 he established tlie New 
England Coiirunt. Tlu- earliest essays of Dr. Benjamin Franklin were published 
in the Coaruai. The religious articles of the Doctor were regarded as being of a 
skeptical character, and.) auies, the publisher, was arrested and imprisoned for 
tlieir liublicatioii. James afterwards came; to Newport, and it is said started the 
first newspaper published iu Rhode Island in 1727. It is certain that he published 
a newspaper here in 17;>2, in which year he became printer to the colony and un- 
dertook to |uint iiO copies of the public acts of that year for £20. There are books 
extant that were published by him, some that were published by his widow, and 
some by his sou James, who established the yewjjort Mercury in 17.")8. 

We gather the following from Dr. F'ranklin's correspondence in reference to 
thf- members of his family who resided at Newport : 

In 1724 Dr. Franklin on a return from his first visit to Boston, after he had re- 
moved to Pliiladelphia, says : "The sloop putting in at Newi^ort, Rhode Island, I 
visited my brother John who had been married anil settled there sonxe years. 
He received me very affectionately for he always loved me." • 

Tcu years later (17o4) Dr. Franklin having become easy m his circumstances 
made a journey to Boston to visit his relatives. In returning he called at New- 
port to see his brother James, then settled here with his printing house. Their 
former differences were forgotten and their meeting was cordial and affection- 
ate. James was then fast declining iu his health, and requested his brother in 
the event of his (James') death, which he apprehended not far tllstant, to take 
home his (James), son, James Franklin, theji but ten years of age, and bring him 
up to the printing business. With this request the Dr. complied, but first sent the 
boy to school for a few years. The boy's mother carried on the business until the 
boy was grown up, wiieu the Dr. gave him an assortment of type, and thereby 
made amends to the boy's father for leaving his employment before the Doctor 
imd served out his apprenticeship. 

Peter Franklin, the last surviving brother of Dr. Franklin, died July 1st, 1766, 
in the 74th year of his age. He had formerly resided at Newport, but at the time 
of his death he was deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. 

January 9th, 17G0, Dr. Franklin in a letter to his sister, Mrs. Mecome, says, 
that of the 17 children born to their father and mother, 13 lived to grow up, and 
that but three then sui-vived. Peter was then one of the survivors. 

In a letter to Mrs. Governor Greene, dated August 1st, 1763, Dr. Franklin says 
that "my brother has returned to Rhode Island." Of course this reference is to 
Peter, who had not then gone to Philadelphia. 

In a letter to his sister Mecome, Dr. Franklin writes : "Jemmy Franklin, when 
^vith me, was always dissatisfied and grumbling." This latter was probably 
■written between 1743 and 1749. 

Dr. Franklin was probably the debtor of his brother John as late as 1752, for 
May 1st of that year he writes his sister ISIecomc, enclosing her six pistoles, and 
tells her to hand to John the amount if she received the sum on a draft he liad 
previously sent her, and to have John credit the amount in the Doctor's account. 



(21 a.) The following is the list of privateer commanders:— George AV.Babcock, 
Oliver Read, John Grimes, Benjamin Pearce, Joseph L. Gardner, "William l>en- 
iiis, James Godfrey, Thomas Stacy, Christopher Bently, Samuel Jeffers, Joseiih 
Jaques, Thomas Foster, Joseph Crandall, Ezekiel Burroughs, Isaac Freeborn, 
Peter Gazee, AVilliam Ladd, John Murphy, John Coggeshall, William Finch, 
Thomas Dring, Samuel Walker, James Phillips, Remembrome Simmons. Joseph 
Sheffield. 

.VKTHVU I'.KOAV.V. 

(22.) Arthur Brown was the son of the Rev. .Alarmaduke Brown, rector of 
Trinity Church in Xewport. The Rev. 3Iannadukc Brown was the rector of that 
chui'ch from sometime in the year 1760 until his decease in 17(il. In 1795 his son, 
Arthur Brown, caused to be erected a mural monument in Trinity church to the 
memory of his father and mother, ui)on which is the following inscription 
in reference to himself, viz: "This monument was erected by their .son, 
Arthur Brown, Esq., now senior fellow, of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, 
and Representative in Parliament for the same. In token of his grati- 
tude and affection to the best and tenderest of parents, and his respect and love 
for a conffyegation ajuonr/ whom and for a place inhere he spent his earliest and 
happiest days." In the year 1798 Dr. Brown slated to Captain David .M. Cogge- 
shall, in Dublin, that "he was born in Newport in a house near tlie Redwood 
Library," i)robably "the old parsonage," now owned by Mr. William Fludder. 
Brown remained here until he was seventeen years of age. Writing in 1798, Dr. 
Brown says: "The face of the country was beautiful beyond description : it was 
composed of woods of no very great magnitude, perliaps of half a mile or a mile 
in diameter, interspersed with most charming lawns. The effect which is pro- 
duced in a few demesnes of our nobility by so much ari, was there universally 
wrought by nature, with the little aid of man in clearing its too great exhuber- 
ances. # * * Rhode Island throughout answered this character, 

but alas, I am told the fonner war did not leave a single timber tree." 



Xewport, in Rhode Island, used to send out annually 400 sail of shipping, 
small and large. « * * Every one knows what immense channels of 
commerce have opened since, and how soon America launched forth even to 
China and Nootka Sound." 

"The climate of Rhode Island, often called the garden and IMontpelier of 
America, induced such numbers of wealthy persons from the southward to reside 
there in summer, that it was ludicrously called the Carolina hospital." 

In reference to an important question which is now disturbing antiquarians 
as to when the revolution commenced, he says : "The discontents of America are 
usually dated from the stamp act in 1765, but they really originated in 1763, 
immediately after the peace, from the interdiction of their trade with the Span- 
ish main. It was the only trade which brought specie into the country, and 
hence no money was seen except paper, saving half johannas, dollars, pistereens ; 
a guinea or English crown was seldom seen. The depression of the value of paper 
money was greater in Rhode Island than anywhere else, a paper dollar bearing 
the nominal value of eight pounds. I myself saw one American fort fire upon 
the Squirrel, a king's ship, in 1764, in the harbor of Newport." 

Speaking of the schools in New England he says . "Of their schools, self-love 
naturally inclines the author to give a favorable account, he havlnfj never received 
any school education elsewhere, yet their teachers were often from Europe, and it 
was his own fate to be instructed by a German and a Scotchman." 

He says of the Redwood Library : "The library at Rhode Island, though built 
of wood, was a structure of uncommon beauty ; I remember it witli admiration, 
and I could once appeal to the known taste of an old school fellow, Stuart, the 



painter, who had the same feeling towards it. It was sacked of its books by the 
British army, as was the college of Princeton in the Jerseys. A college milita- 
ry corps existed at Cambridge before I left it." 

Arthur Brown, in Dublin, soon arose to great eminence. He became Senior 
Fellow and Senior Proctor of Trinity College, a Doctor of Civil Law, and King's 
Professor of Greek. For a time he held the Vicar Generalship of Kildar, and 
practiced in the courts as an eminent barrister." 

"For many years no person in the imivesity enjoyed greater popularity. They 
gave him their best and most honorable gifts. They appointed him their repre- 
sentative in the National Legislature , and for years the Irish House of Com- 
mons listened with surprise and admiration to his bold and powerful language." 

Dr. Bro^vn was the author of "A Compendious View of Ecclesiastical Law." 
"Lectures as professor of Civil Law in the University of Dublin." "Brown's 
View of the Civil Law and Law of Admiralty." "Hussen O'Die," a poem trans- 
lated from the Persian language, and two volumes of miscellaneous writings. 

He died in Dublin in the summer of 1805. 

AUGUSTUS JOHNSTON. 

(23.) .Augustus Johnston's house was in Division street ; Dr. Thomas IMoffatt's 
in Broad street, and Martin Howard's in Spring street. 

CHARLES DUDLEY. 

(24.) Charles Dudley, the King's Collector of Customs at Newport, who fled lo 
the British ship Rose, as a refuge from the wrath of the populace, came over 
from England in 17C5. He married a daughter of Robert Cook, of Newport. Mr. 
Dudley went to England with his family, where he died soon after. His family 
afterwards returned to .America. His son, the late Mr. Charles Dudley, settled in. 
Albany where he became a distinguished and wealthy citizen, and where his 
name is jjerxjetuatedby "The Dudley Observatory." 

]Mr. Charles Dudley, senior, when he was collector in Newport, occupied the 
house in Middletown, built by Matthew Cozzens, merchant of Newport, who died 
in Charleston, S. C, December 17S0. 

A letter written by Mr. Dudley, and now in the British State Paper Office, 
says: "The attack upon the Gaspee was not the effect of sudden passion and 
resentment, but of cooi deliberation and forethought. It had long been deter- 
mined that she should be destroyed." 

In October, 177G, John Smith was ajipointcd by the General Assembly to sell 
all of the effects of George Rome and Cliarles Dudley in possession of the State, 
excepting the screws and bars and the effects in Nathan Miller's hands, ami the 
articles excepted were to be sold by Josias Lyndon. 

JOSEVU WaNTON. 

(25.) Joseph Wanton was the son of AVilliam Wanton, who died in 1733, Gov- 
ernor of the colony. Governor AVilliam Wanton in early life commanded a pri- 
vateer out of Newport. Joseph held many important offices under the colony, 
but it is said tliat he had the misfortune to inherit from his father a quarrel with 
the Ward family, which induced him to promote the interest of Stephen Hopkins 
against Samuel Ward, and when Ward and Hopkins became united in support of 
the colonies, it is not impossible that Wanton, who had been an outspoken advo- 
cate; of the rights cf the colonies, was turned to the support of the crown by his 
hostility to the Wards. In 1775 he w.is removed from olVice by the General Assem- 
bly. He married a daughter of Governor Wiiithrop of Connecticut. Two of the 
sons of Governor Joseph Wanton, Joseph and William, were wealthy merchants 
of Newport. The former left with the British and died iu New York. William, 



after the peace, was appointed collector of St. Johns, New Brunswick, and re- 
sided there. The sons had large estates, which were confiscated, (iovernor Jo- 
seph Wanton died in A.D. 17S0, aged 75 years, and was burled in the Clifton 
burying ground. 

SOLOMON SOUTirWICK. 

(26.) Solomon Southwick was born in Newport about 1731. He was the .son of 
a fisherman. His intelligent appearance attracted the attention of Henry Col 
lins, the eminent merchant and philanthropist, who sent Southwick to school, 
and was the means of giving him a good education. After completing his studies, 
Southwick taught a school In Newjiort for several years. He then engaged in 
mercantile affairs in which he was unsuccessful. About 1764 he purchased 
from the heirs of James Franklin, the Newport Mei'cury, and the printing estab- 
lishment then connected with that paper. The paper was outspoken in favor of 
the rights of the colonies. He was among the early book publishers of New 
England, and had an extensive establishment for that time employed in that 
business, and there are many books yet extant which bear his imi^rint. At the 
breaking out of the war he was engaged in a very ijrosperous business which he 
was forced to abandon with the most of his property. He then removed to 
Providence, and was in the service of the State at the head of its commissariat. 
He returned to Newport after the peace, and was postmaster there for a 
time, under Iheconfederation, and afterwards, for three orfour years was a part- 
ner in the Mercury establishment. He died in Newport, December 23d, 1797, aged 
66 years. He left four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Solomon Southwick, 
removed to Albany, where he was editor of the Albany Register, a leading Dem- 
ocratic paper in the State of New York. He died in Albany in 1839. 

KEV. EZRA STILES, D.D. 

(27.) Upon the death of the Rev. Mr. Searing, the Rev. Samuel Fairweather 
was made pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newport in 1754, but in 
consequence of an occurrence at a dinner at Godfrey Malbone's, he left the church 
in 1755, and soon after left the denomination. Tire Rev. Ezra Stiles was the suc- 
cessor of iNIr. Fairweather, and was settled pastor of that church in 1755. He 
was, perhaps, the most learned man of his time in Amei-ica, and was one of the 
firmest advocates of the rights of the colonies in their struggle with Great 
Britain for national existence and independence. He, with a considerable por- 
tion of his congregation, was driven away from Newport upon the breaking out 
of the war. 

In 1777 he was ma<le President of Yale College, but was not formerly dismissed 
from his pastoral office in Newport until 1786. He died May 12lh, 1795, in the 68th 
year of his age. His diary, now in the custody of Yale College, is said to con- 
tain much interesting matter pertaining to the history of Newport. He had a 
daughter who married Abiel Holmes, the author of "Holmes' Annals," and she 
was the mother of Oliver AVendell Holmes. - ^. , -i. ■'-- 

llEV. SAMUEL HOPKINS, D. D. 

(28.) Dr. Hopkins preached his first sermon to the First Congregational Church 
in Newport, July 23d, 1769. After preaching to the congregation for a time, a sa- 
tirical pamphlet written, by the Rev. William Hart, on Dr. Hopkins and his relig- 
ious dogmas, was circulated among the congregation, and induced a considerable 
opposition to, and delayed the Doctor's installation in the pastoral ollice of this 
society to April 11th, 1770. He died in Newport, December 20ih, 1803. in the 83d 
year of his age. He was pastor of the Newport church for more than thirty-threo 
years. Dr. Hopkins wrote an autobiography of himself, which was published 
after his decease, with notes, by the Rev. Stephen West. Reminiscences of his 
life by the Rev. Dr. William Patten ; a memoir of his life and character by iho 



APPENDIX. 



Rev. John Ferguson, with a memoir of his life and character by the Rev. 
Edward A. Park, have all been published and are accessable to those who 
desire to investigate the character and teachings of this great man. Doctor 
Hopkins wrote and publislied many books, and was the means of many books 
being published by others. He was, perhaps, the earliest American who publicly 
denounced the African slave trade, and who favored the entire aljolition of 
slavery, and was among the first to denounce the use of intoxicating liquors as a 
beverage, and to favor the prohibition of the liquor traffic. He was an ardent 
whig before and during the revolution, and though he disliked "the slavery 
clauses," he favored the adoption of the Federal constitution. Though he was 
an unpopular preacher, and wrote upon uni^opular subjects, few men made a 
deeper impression upon the public mind tlian did this eminent divine. His dia- 
logue upon^the subject of slavery, his biography of Jonathan Edwards, his lives of 
Susanna Anthony and Hannah Osborne, though not among his most important 
works, were much read and highly appreciated upon their publication both in 
this country and in Great Britain ; and his dialogue upon the subject of slavery 
was one of the first and one of the most able and influential papers ever pub- 
lished upon that subject. AVithal, he was an humble, self-denying and faithful 
Christian. 

Under the first charter. May 18th, 1652, Rhode Island passed an act against llie 
importation of negroes into the colony. In 1675-6, a law was passed to prohibit 
Indian bondage, and in 1715 an act was passed to pronibit the importa- 
tion cf Indian slaves. Yet, afierwards, Rhode Island became deeply involved in 
the slave trade, and Newport was the centre of this traffic. When in 1770 nr. 
Hopkins preached from his jiulpit in ^Newport his first sermon against tue slave 
traffic. Whittier says: "It well may oe doubted whether on that Sabbath day the 
angels of (iod, in. their wide survey of the universe, looked upon a nobler spec- 
tacle than that of the minister of Newport, rising up before his slaveholding con- 
gregation and demanding in the name of the Highest the deliverance of the cap- 
tive and the opening of prison doors to those that were bound!" The colony ot 
Rhode Island in June, 1774, passed a law prohibiting the bringing of slaves into" 
the colony, and in 1784 the Legislature enactedthat all children born after March 
1st, 1785, should be free. Of the passage of these acts Dr. Hopkins was an ardent 
advocate. Dr. Hopkins, after the revolution, was very poor, and sometimes was 
scantily provided even with the necessaries of life, yet, upon his receiving nine 
hundred dollars for the copyright of his "System of Divinity," it is said by one 
■writer that he gave one hundred dollars, and by another that he gave one half ot 
the amount to an anti-slavery society in Rhode Island, and notwithstanding his 
great poverty he actually purchased upon his own credit the freedom of one pious 
African, with the view of educating him as a missionary and sending him to 
Africa, for Dr. Iloplvins hoped to destroy tlie slave trade by evangelizing and 
educating tlie natives of Africa in their own country. 

THE LORD SANDWICH. 

(29.) List of persons imprisoned by the British on board the Lord Sandwich, 
viz: Capt. Ebenezer Vose, Job Ea.ston, Thomas Richardson, Nathaniel Grafton 
John Haven, Robert Taylor, Joseph Allen, Samuel Yates, Ezra Fopc, Ebcneze 
Carr, Mr. Devens, IMr. Rider, Joseph Gurdon, John Townsend Joshua Rathbone, 
S. Billings, Charles Cahoone, John Arnold, John Harrod, John Hubbard, Edward 
Simmons, AViiliam Carter, Paul Coffin, Capt. Church, Edward Church, Benjamin 
Cluircli, Jr., Major Fairchilds, Jonathan Yates, Isaac Dayton. AVilliam Dilling- 
ham, Samuel Carr, Jolin Bradley, John Gardner, Sherman Clarke, (iideon 
Wanton, Joscpli Bissel, John Cahoone, Higgins Landers, John Lawton, Harry 
Oman, Tliomas Peckham, Ricliard Thomas. Jolin Bull, Charles Yigneron. Henry 
Irish, Thomas Howland, Daniel Fullows, Hanson Hull, Nathan Luther, William 
Langley, .John Greene, Daniel Smith, Edward Murphy, Benjamin ."Marshall, 
Samuel Vinson, Joseph Tillinghast, Jonathan Hull, Elisha Lawton, Lee Langley, 
Peter Langley, William Downer, 



APPENDIX. 



IMPRESSED SEAMEN. 



(30') In 1794, during the May session of the Assembly, HisBritannicMajesty's ship, 
the Nuutilus, arrived in Newport, having on board six American seamen, some 
of whom, it was alleged, had been impressed into this service. The conmianding 
officer of this vessel was on shore, and was summoned before the General Assem- 
bly. Tlie subject was referred to the Judges ot tlie Superior Court, and to the 
Judge of the V. S. Disli-ict Court, before whom, in the presence of Consul Moore, 
Commander Uoynton was examined. The General AssemMy sent a committee 
on beard of the Nautilus to examine as to whether there were American seamen 
detained there, and while tliis examination was being made, the judges protected 
Boynton from the populace, and upon the return of the committee who had re- 
ported that six men were detained against their will, Boynton issued an order 
for their discharge and for the payment of their wages. 

THOMAS DE COUKCY. 

(31) The Right Honorable Thomas de Courcy,Lc)rd Kinsale, Baron de Courcy and 
Regrone, late Premier Baron of Ireland, was another distinguished person, 
whose life was intimately connected with the commerce of Newport. His ances- 
tor, ayounger son of the family, emigrated to Newport about 1720. Here, Tiiomas 
de Courcy was born and was afterwards bound an apprentice to a Captain Beard 
of this place. He afterwards enlisted in the navy, and shareei in the honor of 
taking Porto Bello, and while with Admiral Vernon, from that officer De Courcy 
received intelligence which enabled him to establish his title to the estates and 
honors of his family. 

UK. BEN.JAMIN WATKRHOUSK. 

(33) Dr. Benj. AVaterhouse, physician, naturalist and author, was also a native 
of Newjiort, born here in 1754. He was educated at London, Edinburg and Leyden. 
He was thirty years a professor in Harvard College, and died in Cambridge in 
1846, at the advanced age of 92 years. 

Dr. Waterhouse rememembered the time when Augustus Johnston was Attdr- 
ney General and Stamp Master, and when Johnston, Martin Howard and Dr. 
Moffat were lianged in effigy, and when their effigies were afterwards burned on 
the Newport Parade, and when the contents of their houses and cellars were de- 
stroyed by a mob at night. Dr. Waterhouse also remembered Judge Scott, Judge 
Hazard, William Ellery, William Channing, the father of William Ellery Chan- 
ing, and Mr. Simpson, the latter an Englishman who practiced law in Newj^ort, 
but "died in England among other refugees." He just remembered Henry Bull, 
but knew Judge Lightfoot, who taught him to value and study Lord Bacon, Lock, 
Newton and Boerhaven. Lightfoot was the oracle of Newport in his lime. He 
was an able, learned and idle man. Honeyman and Marchant, Dr. Waterhouse 
regarded to be gentlemen of the old school; Varnum he took to bi- a popular as- 
pirant, and Ellery and his three brothers to be llaming sons of liberty. In his 
old age. Dr. Waterhouse prophesied that Newport would become the bath of the 
United States, to which rich invalids would ntire to improve their impaired health, 
and wished that he had some pleasant spot or farm on his native island, to wliich, 
if not himself, his invalid posterity might resort to enjoy peace, licalth and 
liberty. 

Dr. Waterhouse was the author of "Lectures on the Theory and Practice of 
Medicine," 8 vo. published innStJ; "Lectures on Natural History," 1810;" The 
Botanist," 1811; "Oratorio /«a?<|7. at Harvard Cniversity," 1783; "A Book on Vital- 
ity," 1790; "Prospect of Exterminating the Small Pox," 1800; "Ascribing Author- 
ship of Junius to the Earl of Chatham," 1831 ; "Journal of a Young Man of Mass.," 
1816. 

Dr. Waterhouse was the son of Timothy ^\'atcrhouse, and was born in a lionse 
fronting on Liberty Square, in Newport, 
3 



THE CHANGING FAMILY. 

(35) The founder of this family in Newport was Jolm Clianning, wlio came to 
Newport abo 1 1715. He left a son, John Channing, and several daughters. John 
Channlng, son of John, was the father of William Chauning, who was born in 
1751, graduated at Prineeton in 17G!), studied law with Oliver Arnold, was elected 
Attorney General in 1777, and annually reele -ted up to 1787, when he was turned 
out of office by the paper money party. In 1791 he was again made Attorney 
General, and the same year was api^ointed by General Washington, United States 
District Attorney, and held both offices up to his death, which occurred Septem- 
ber 21, 1793, aged 42 years. He married Lucy EUery, the daughter of William 
Ellery, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. They had eleven children, 
nine of whom survived their father. The eldest son was Francis Dana Chan- 
ning, of Boston; the second son, AVilliam Ellery Channing, the eminent scholar 
and divine. Two of the younger sons, Dr. Walter and Edwanl, were professors in 
Harvard College. 

TUK ELLEKY 1 AMILV. 

(36) William Ellery was at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in lU03.He had a son Ben- 
jamin, his third child, born in 1G69. He first removed toBristol, then apart of Mas- 
sachuse ts, but soon removed to Newport. He commanded a letter of marque 
out of Newport in 1702. He married Abigail, d uighter of John Wilkins.of Wiltshire, 
England, July 30th, lC9i). About this time he removed to Newport. They had 
nine children. William, his eldest son, and third child, was born October 31st, 
1701, and graduated at Harvard College in 1722. He became a wealthy merchant 
in Newport, a Judge, an Assistant and Deputy (iovernor of the colony of Rhode 
Island. He married Elizabeth Almy, January 3d, 1722, and died in Newport, 
March l.'ith, 1764, leaving three sons and one daughter. William, the second son, 
was born December 22d, 1727, graduated at Harvard College in 1747, and married 
Ann Remington, of Cambridge, October 11th, 1750. He settled in Newport and 
engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1759 he was appointed naval officer of the 
colony of Rhode Island, and iu 1770 he commenced the practice of the law, in 
which ho continued to 1776, when, upon the decease of Samuel Ward, he was 
elected to the Continental Congress, and there became a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence. I'pon tlie organization of the federal government under the 
constitution, he was appointed Collector of the Customs for Newport, and held 
that office up to his decease, February 15th, 1820. 

THE DECATUR F\MIEV. 

(37) Stephen Decatur, the aucestorof this family, is said toluive been a native of 
Genoa, and to have come to Rhode Island in 1746. He was naturalized by an act 
of the General Assembly in 1755. During the war between England ani France 
he was an officer of a privateer, fitted out at Newport. He married, in 1751, Fris- 
cilla Hill, a widow, whoso maiden name was George. By this marriage he had 
two sons -Stephen, L)orn in 1752, and John, born in 1754. The son Stephen, the 
father of the late Commodore Stephen Decatur, was bred to the sea. The Dcca- 
turs lived in the old Brayton house, then standing at the head of the Mall, but 
now is ne.xt north of the residence of the late Edward W. Lawton, on the east .side 
of Charles street. 

llEMtV CULL1N8. 

(38) Henry Collins was the sou of Arnold and Amy Collins, and was born in New- 
port, March 25th, 1699. He was educated in England, became a merchant ni)on his 
return to Newport, and for a time was very successful, but became bankrupt i i 
1765, a result brought about by the application of the admiralty rule of 1756. Mr. 
Collins was a great benefactor of Newport. He was one of the founders of the 
Redwood Library, and of the Literary Society, out of which it arose, and one of 
the builders of the Long Wharf and the Granary. He educated several deserving, 
but poor young men, at his own expense, an^ong tUeni was Solomon Southwick, 



APPENDIX. XV. 

and to his libeiality posterity are indebted for the portraits of Callander, Berke- 
ley, Clapp, Hitchcock, and perhaps others. Dr. Waterhouse speaks of him as 
the Lorenzo de Medici of Rhode Island. He died at the house of a friend about 
1770. Mr. Collins owned the house on Easton's Point, at what was known as the 
Gibbs' Ship Yard, which during the revolution belonged to George Rome, and 
which, in the hard winter of 1780, was torn down and distributed among the poor 
for fuel. 

AKNOLD FAMILY. 

(39) Benedict Arnold came to Newport from Providence in 1053, and was admitted 
purchaser inNewj)ort. His town lot extended from Mill to I^elham streets, and his 
house was on the lot belonging to the People's Library. His son Benedict inher- 
ited his liomestead. One of the daughters of the second Benedict married Edward 
Pelham, whose two daughters inherited it, one of whom married John Bannister 
and the other John Cowley. Bannister built a wharf, and so did Cowley. Gover- 
nor Arnold, the first Benedict, probably erected "the Old Stone Mill." He held 
many important ofiices. He was the first Governor under the charter of Charles 
II. and was often re-elected to that oftice. He left four sons and three daughters. 
He died June 9th, 1678, at the age of 63 years, and was buried in a lot adjoining, on 
the east, the estate of Gov. Van Zandt. 

GOVERNOK GIBBS HOUSE. 

The Governor Gibbs house, on the north side of Mill street, was built by John 
Tillinghast, about 1765. It was afterwards the property of Col. Archibald Crary, 
who was an officer of the revolution. At the close of the war, General Greene 
came to Newport and rented and occupied tlie house. Here he was visited by 
the Marquis de Lafayette, October 24th, 1784. General Greene took possession of 
the house, November 25th, 1783, when he was waited iixion by the principal inhab- 
itants of the town, and presented with a congratulatory address, to which he 
made a suitable response. While General Greene resided in this house, lie was 
visited by Kosciusko and by Baron Stuben. 




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